Knickers
by lucyhoneychurch
Summary: Harry receives an...unusual package in the mail...
1. Sexiest Man Alive

Title: Knickers  
Author: firegoddess  
Rating: To be safe, I'm going to say R although only some of it is. If anyone wants to read the NC-17 chapters that I've written for this story but can't post here, please go to my yahoogroup here: http/groups. I Own Nothing  
Spoilers: Anything before HBP….I started writing this before the 6th book came out  
Summary: Harry receives an…unusual package in the mail…

**Chapter 1: Sexiest Man Alive**

"Oh bloody hell," Harry Potter cursed as he opened one of the large envelopes that had been owled to him that morning at the Burrow. Indeed, now that Voldemort had been defeated and he was finished at Hogwarts (these events were cathartically close together, the final battle occurring on his birthday the summer after he had left his seventh year), he had been at odds with himself over where he would live. At first, he had thought about moving into a flat but Molly Weasley had quickly vetoed that idea After all, as soon as he finished school and, not to mention, the war, he had accepted the offer the Chudley Cannons had extended to him in January of his last year at school. Ron, Harry remembered, had thrown him a party to commemorate the occasion (and to convince his best friend to take the offer; at the time, Harry had been a tad preoccupied with training for the final battle). He travelled a lot with the team therefore, making paying rent on a flat he rarely lived in pointless. And Harry had to admit to himself that it _was_ comforting to be mothered a bit after the years of living with the Dursley's and the ever-constant stress that had been Voldemort. There were other reasons too; actually one reason in particular, but he wasn't comfortable thinking about it too much. It tended to depress him. Right now though, he wasn't thinking about that. No, at the moment he was more concerned about the pile of envelopes that had been dropped next to his breakfast plate not more than five minutes ago.

"What is it, Harry?" Ron asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice. He abruptly spit it out though, catching Harry in the face with the spray as he took in the object that his best friend had pulled from the envelope. "Bloody hell! Are those what I think they are!"

Harry nodded, running a hand over his face to clean the juice Ron had got on him while continuing to dangle the lacy red knickers he had received gingerly from a single finger. "Yes, Ron, yes they are."

"Give one of those envelopes here then," Ron reached across the table. "Maybe there are more."

"Ron!" Harry shot him a scandalized look, the blush that had started to emerge on his face at the first 'surprise' growing.

Ron looked at him as he opened the next envelope and smirked as he took out another pair, this time a black G-string –complete with a picture of the owner. "There's a picture in this one!"

"Pictures in what one?" Hermione inquired as she and Ginny entered the kitchen from the yard. They had already been to Diagon Alley and back by the time the boys had gotten up.

"Nothing." Harry's face went the colour of an extremely ripe tomato as he desperately tried to hide the two pairs of knickers that were lying incriminatingly on the kitchen table.

"Red lace, Harry?" Ginny grinned teasingly, picking the knickers in question up and looking at them. "I always thought of you as a grey cotton kind of bloke but hey, whatever does it for you…"

"They're not mine," Harry hissed uncomfortably, his face burning hotly.

"Well, what about these then?" Hermione casually picked up the black g-string and held it up for closer inspection. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the picture of a buxom blond wearing the same pair of knickers she was holding. With a gasp of shock and disgust, she dropped the G-string abruptly. "Oh my God Harry, what…?"

"I know, I can't figure it out either." He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I just woke up this morning…"

"Afternoon," Ginny interjected accusingly.

"Afternoon," Harry corrected himself, shooting Ginny an annoyed look before putting his glasses back on and continuing with his story, "And about 50 owls came into the house leaving these envelopes." He motioned to the stack that still sat next to him on the kitchen table; thicker than they should have been, thanks to whatever illicit contents the females of the Wizarding world were apparently plaguing him with today.

Ginny's eyes twinkled. She knew something he didn't…

"What?" Harry spat out in an exasperated voice.

"I know something you don't know…" she said in a sing-song voice.

"Ginevra Weasley, you tell me why I've received two pairs of knickers today or I swear…"

"What?" she said in a challenging voice.

"I will tell your mother," Harry's eyes narrowed in warning, while Ginny's eyes widened in fear. She knew that although she was 22 years old, she was still afraid of what her mother would do to her sometimes. "Fine, but you're not going to like it." Ginny sat down and fumbled in the bag she had brought back from the Alley. "I picked this up when Hermione was in Flourish and Blotts." She slapped a magazine down on the table.

Harry looked impatiently at the magazine and inwardly recoiled as his picture, decked out in his Quidditch robes, winked back at him.

"You, my friend," Ginny leaned forward and smirked in amusement. "Are _Witch Weekly's _'Sexiest Man Alive'."

"But," Harry stammered, flabbergasted that _Witch Weekly_ hadn't even consulted him before putting him on the cover. Indeed, the Wizarding world was extremely behind the times when it came to things like this; they _had_ lawyers but they hadn't yet reached the point where anyone would sue a media outlet or person for slander. This is how Rita Skeeter had got by with writing so many negative articles on his life back in his Hogwarts days. "No one even told me this was happening…"

Hermione rolled her eyes, flopping down in the chair next to Ron and grabbing his fork. With a sigh she took a heaping forkful of his scrambled eggs and put them in her mouth. "When have they ever, Harry?"

"Hey!" Ron cried, reaching for his fork back and wincing as Hermione hit his hand hard. "Get your own!"

Hermione turned a bemused eye onto her spouse and snorted. "No. When you're five months pregnant, we'll talk." She put another bite in her mouth and closed her eyes as the taste of well made scrambled eggs and a touch of curry burst on her tongue. Harry had obviously made these. They were too good to be Ron's. "It's your fault anyway." 

Indeed, she and Ron had got married right out of Hogwarts and were expecting their first child now that Hermione had deemed that the timing was right. After all, not only was Voldemort dead, but both she and her husband had secure jobs. Ron was an analyst for the Special Ops section of the Aurors and Hermione was Hogwarts' new Transfiguration professor. They lived at Hogwarts during the school year but for the summer, they were staying at the Burrow.

Ron exchanged an amused look with his wife and gave up, shifting the plate over in front of her. "Here, finish it then."

"Thank you, Luv," Hermione dropped a kiss on her husband's cheek and turned her eyes to Harry, who was eying the rest of the envelopes warily now that Ginny had dropped the bomb about the 'Sexiest Man Alive' cover he had won. "Wait, Harry. How'd they get the picture for the cover then?"

Harry winced. "Do you remember my first season with the Cannons?" At the group's nod, he continued. "Well, we had some publicity shots taken to announce my recruitment onto the team." Harry quirked an eyebrow, "That's one of the ones they didn't use."

He sighed. "I don't get it though, I've been with the Cannons for four years now and I've never received underwear in the mail. Just letters."

"Well you weren't the 'Sexiest Man Alive' then were you? Besides, the Cannons screen your fan mail, Harry. I should know. I did the screening for the past year and a half and you _have _received knickers and other…things before," Ginny smiled wickedly, remembering some of the items Harry and the rest of the players had received. Everything from love notes to bras. She had indeed been one of the assistant managers to the Cannons last year and in charge of the screening itself. She had recently gotten a place on the Holyhead Harpies as a Chaser though and decided to leave the Cannons. This was the story as everyone else knew it. They all thought she had left because she had gotten a better paying position, and furthermore, one which allowed her to pursue the sport that she loved and was more than capable of playing- and winning. What they didn't know was that the real reason she had first joined Chudley as Assistant Manager and then left for Holyhead had nothing to do with money and everything to do with Harry Potter.

Widening her grin, Ginny threw herself back into the conversation, knowing that the train of thought she was currently on would only depress her. After all, Harry Potter was perhaps the thickest individual she had ever met. The only way he would ever notice the feelings she still had for him was if she sent him her OWN underwear on a silver platter and she wasn't about to do that anytime soon; she did have her pride after all. With a sigh, she turned her attention to the rest of the envelopes that still sat on the kitchen table like extremely warped Christmas presents. "Now, let's see what else you were sent in the mail by your adoring public Mr. Potter…"


	2. Date Night

Chapter 2: Date Night  
  
"This just won't do," Ginny thought as she stood in front of her full-length mirror, taking in the black cocktail dress she was currently wearing. She had a date with Colin, her boyfriend of two years in less than ten minutes and she wasn't ready. Ginny gulped. She was pretty sure by the hints Colin had been dropping recently that he was going to propose tonight. But what did one wear to such an occasion?  
  
This was the least of her problems though. Quidditch season started in a month and that meant that her vacation time was already a thing of the past. Indeed, she had spent the day at practice with her new team, the Holyhead Harpies. It also meant that the time she had left to spend with Harry, the man she loved but could not have, would literally evaporate as he started to travel with the Cannons and as she did the same with the Harpies. This of course, led to more uncomfortable situations to think about, like the first time she would have to face him and the Cannons in an actual game situation and, dare she jinx herself and the team, perhaps at the National Cup.  
  
She sighed as she took a green silk dress out of the closet and laid it gently on the bed, starring at it as she tried to picture herself in it and Colin, down on one knee proposing to her. Really, if he was proposing, she should accept. After all, he did love her and she did love him- just not as much as she did of Harry. Her mind went back toward the moment that she had given up on Harry completely. She had just turned twenty and had decided that she would finally come clean to Harry about her feelings. This was not to say that the Boy-Who-Lived was unaware of their existence; Harry was aware...she was fairly certain he thought they had disappeared with her teenage years. She had gone to Chudleys practice that day with the intent to purge herself of the secret that everyone knew but that she had never once voiced and left that day heartbroken. Upon arrival at the stadium, she had gone in the staff entrance that she usually used and entered the player's locker room, knowing that Harry was generally the last to leave and would very likely be alone. She was right about his habits, but wrong about his company. He wasn't alone tonight, Susan Bones, his current girlfriend, was with him. This in itself hadn't been the match that had lit the proverbial cask. No, it was the gentle caress of Susan's cheek by Harry's hand and the whispered words of love that she had overheard Harry saying to her as she gave him what appeared to be a belated birthday gift.   
  
And that had been that.   
  
From that moment on, she had decided to get over Harry. He had apparently moved on, and so would she. She had backed quietly out of the locker rooms and vowed to herself that she would accept the next proposition she was offered and had gone out with Hermione to some Wizard nightclubs. Colin, the friend she hadn't seen since Hogwarts had been there, asked her to dance and by the end of the evening, had asked her out.   
  
Shaking her head at the painful memories, she took off the black dress she was wearing, picked the one on the bed up and put it on. There, she thought, looking at the image she made in the mirror. Perfect. Suddenly her brother's voice cut into her perusal of herself, calling for his best friend as he went down the hallway to the bedroom that Harry used when he was at the Burrow. "Harry, are you still going out with Katie tonight?"  
  
Ginny grimaced as a wave of jealousy passed through her body. Harry had been 'seeing' Katie Bell for a little over a year now and, while not serious, it was still a major part of his life and definitely one that Ginny was envious of Katie for. What she wouldn't give to be with him. Ginevra Weasley was anything but pathetic though and she wasn't about to break up a long standing relationship just because she happened to have feelings for one of the people involved. And, for that matter, it wasn't as if she didn't have a relationship herself. Colin was good to her, so good in fact that if he proposed tonight she was 95% certain that she would accept. She looked at herself in the mirror again, adjusting the dress on her body and smoothing out the rough spots where the fabric bunched around her panty line. That was the problem with wearing underwear under silk; they always made the dress crinkle in awkward places. With another sigh, Ginny resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't be wearing underwear tonight if she wanted to wear this dress. And she DID want to wear this dress. It was perfect for getting proposed to in. Gritting her teeth at the brazenness of her action, she lifted her dress and removed her knickers.   
The mirror whistled at her. "Thinking of getting lucky tonight dearie?"  
  
"No," Ginny protested, jumping a bit as the mirror startled her. "I'm just….making the dress look better."  
  
The mirror laughed as if she had said something hilariously funny. "And I'm made of aluminum foil honey. Next you'll be telling me that you didn't shave your legs before you got dressed."  
  
Ginny gaped at the mirror, appalled that the mirror seemed to know so much of her routine simply from its position in the corner of her room. "I can break you, you know…" she growled threateningly.  
  
"But you won't, will you?" The mirror drawled, "Seven years bad luck and all that rot. Besides, you look good enough to eat and I'm sure without those knickers, someone will. Good idea by the way."  
  
Ginny blushed deeply, her patience and modesty finally reaching its limits at this last crude comment by the inanimate object. Tomorrow, she would get a mirror that didn't talk, and then maybe she could dress in piece. With a sigh of humiliation, she tossed the controversial knickers into the laundry hamper before picking up her hand bag from her dresser. If the mirrors comments were any indication, it was going to be an interesting night.

* * *

It had been a long week, Harry thought as he hauled his dirty Quidditch robes off of his body and threw them onto the floor, deciding that he didn't have the energy to pick them up since he was so sick at heart. It was Friday night of what had been perhaps the worst week of his life. On Monday, he had started Quidditch practice with the Cannons for the year (risking his life due to the hundreds of women who swarmed the exit of the stadium as he tried to leave); on Tuesday, he had been knocked off his broom by a rogue bludger and had to be rushed to St. Mungo's due to the 50 foot drop he had been subjected to; on Wednesday he had been released from the hospital and on Thursday, he had been asked by Colin Creevey (who was now a photojournalist for the Daily Prophet and therefore one of Harry's only links to good news stories about himself) to help him pick out an engagement ring for Ginny. Harry being the nice guy that he was (masochistic more like, Hermione had always said) had agreed. And now, on Friday, he knew that he would be losing any possibility of being anything more than a friend to Ginny. Having gotten a ring, Colin was proposing tonight and, knowing that Ginny cared deeply for her boyfriend of 2 years, Harry had given up all hope. That was why, as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, he was going to see Katie.   
  
He and Katie Bell were both on the Chudley Cannons and had been seeing each other for a year now and not because they were going out. No, it was really a mutual satisfying of needs and a shoulder in which to cry on when they needed it. Sometimes they would talk, other times they would have sex. It really depended on what had been happening in their lives. Katie had had a thing for Oliver Wood, their coach, for years now but he was currently dating Fleur Delacour despite the fact that Harry knew Fleur was never faithful to him, having seen her have affairs with both Bill and Charlie Weasley, who were both still single much to Molly's chagrin. And this was in the last 3 months alone.   
  
Tonight, Harry thought as he applied shampoo to his dirty hair, there would definitely be talk with Katie, maybe sex but probably just talk. He was too depressed to do more than that. She would probably ply him with alcohol first, as they always did when either had suffered a set back in their hopes and dreams. With another sigh, Harry continued to scrub his hair with the shampoo before rinsing and reaching for the soap to clean his body with. Katie too had suffered a setback with Oliver recently. He was thinking of asking Fleur to move in with him, and Harry knew that the step after that was marriage. For Katie, it had been one of the nights that she had decided to accost Harry as soon as he had arrived at her apartment. They had had rough sex on her kitchen table before she had finally broken down into the tears she had been holding in since Oliver had confided in her the news, as his best friend, earlier that day. Harry had simply held her and taken her to bed, continuing to hold her as she fell asleep.   
  
Finally finished, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his waist and walking into his room. He almost dropped the towel though as he noticed his best friend sitting on his bed, waiting for him.  
  
"Merlin Ron," Harry gasped, going to his closet and selecting a dark green polo shirt and a pair of tan khaki's before turning back to his friend, "You scared me half to death."  
  
Ron was silent for a moment before he launched directly into the reason he was visiting so close to the time Harry was set to leave for Katie's apartment. "It doesn't have to be this way mate."  
  
Harry sighed, taking a pair of boxers and socks out of the top drawer of the armoire that stood next to the closet. "You know it has to be."  
  
"No, I don't," Ron said wearily. "She has feelings for you mate."  
  
"Ones that she got over years ago," Harry said firmly in reply. "Now would you mind mate? I have a date to get ready for…"  
  
Ron snorted. "The great Harry Potter's afraid to change in front of the best friend he shared a dorm and a locker room with for 7 years? 'Sexiest Man Alive' or not, it's not like I haven't seen it before." He ducked his head, examining an invisible freckle on his hand before looking up with a twinkle in his eye. "Besides, I'm not finished yet."  
  
"Finished with what?" Harry murmured, deciding that if Ron wasn't going to leave that he would just change anyway. With a furrowed brow, he turned and dropped the towel, putting his boxers on quickly before reaching for his khaki's and pulling those on as well.  
  
"What I came in to tell you."  
  
"And just what did you come in to tell me Ron?" Harry demanded, quickly losing patience with his best friend especially on this night, one which he knew was going to be depressing enough without Ron trying to fabricate lies as to the feelings Ginny apparently still had for him.  
  
"She's in love with you Harry," he said, a smirk on his face to rival Malfoy's.  
  
"No, she's not," Harry shook his head, picking up the polo from the bed where he had dropped it to slip it over his head.   
  
"Yes, she does, she told me today," Ron said more firmly.  
  
Harry froze. Ginny had told him she was in love with him?! This could change everything…  
  
"She told you," Harry said slowly, not being able to believe his ears.   
  
"Um-hm," Ron continued, stretching out on Harry's bed. "Came right into my office at work and told me. She also asked me to give you this." He reached into his pocket and got out a slip of paper, handing it to Harry whom had sat down on the bed now to put on his socks.  
  
Harry examined the piece of paper slowly. It had a Muggle telephone number on it…his brow furrowed in confusion before softening in understanding. Ginny didn't have a Muggle phone to need a number for. Ron must be talking about someone else. "Whom are we talking about again?"  
  
"Parvati Patil Harry," Ron sat up. "Who'd you think I was talking about?"  
  
"No one," Harry muttered, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink.  
  
Ron was apparently in the right mood to accept this answer because he shook his head, not willing to pick information from an unwilling brain tonight, not when he didn't have to.  
  
"Alright mate but remember," Ron said, as he stood up and shook the wrinkles that had formed in his pants from sitting on the bed. "You and Katie aren't even exclusive, you just…"  
  
"Fuck?" Harry finished for his best friend bluntly.  
  
Ron nodded. "It's not healthy mate. You haven't had a real relationship in years, not since your brief stint with Susan Bones." Ron paused, a sneaking suspicion that he had missed something coming into his head. "It's almost as if…"  
  
"As if what?" Harry sighed, wanting Ron to leave desperately so that he could do his hair in peace.  
  
"As if you're waiting for someone else," Ron finished in shock. That was it, he could feel it. It had to be because that would explain so much. From the look on Harry's face though, it didn't look like he'd be finding out who it was anytime soon. Indeed, Harry didn't talk to anyone about his love life. Ron had only found out about Katie when he had found them one night making out at the Leaky Cauldron. Even this had struck Ron as suspicious though. Harry had never been known for any public displays of any kind unless he was feeling extremely emotional. Ron doubted that horny counted as emotional in this case though. Whatever had prompted Harry to take up with Katie Bell had to be big to prompt such outward displays from such an introverted man. "Who is she Harry?"  
  
Harry was silent for a moment before answering wearily, "No one Ron," he looked at his watch pointedly. It was 5 minutes after 8 and Ginny had left on her date already. As it was, he was now 5 minutes late for his rendezvous with Katie. "Look, I need to get going; Katie's waiting for me…"  
  
"Sure Harry," Ron said, sensing that what he believed about waiting for someone in particular was probably right. He needed to talk to Hermione about this before he went any farther with the interrogation though. With a sigh, he began to walk out the door, stopping for one last word with his best friend. "Whoever she is Mate, she's not worth the pain she's putting you through." And with that, he left, never hearing Harry's last words as Harry snorted lightly, laughing bitterly and quietly.  
  
"Would you still be saying that if you knew she was your sister?"


	3. Brooding Climaxes

**Knickers Chapter 3: Brooding Climaxes**

"You're late," Katie murmured, not looking up from her menu.

"Sorry," Harry sat down quickly at the table Katie had secured for them at the _Leaky Cauldron_. "Ron wanted to have a heart-to-heart at the last minute."

"He did? What about?" Katie sat her menu down and leaned forward, genuinely interested in what her pseudo-boyfriend had to say. After all, while they _were_ mutually using each other they were still friends- friends with benefits, but friends nonetheless.

Harry shot her a look of exasperation. "Apparently Parvati Pail has feelings for me and wants me to call her." He slipped his hand into his trousers pocket and removed the now crumpled paper, setting it on the table in front of Katie. "She gave her number to Ron to give to me."

Katie burst into giggles as she picked up the slip of paper that Parvati had written her number on. "Another admirer then?" She was rewarded for this snide comment with a glare.

"It's not funny Katie," Harry huffed, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Yes actually, it is," Katie's giggles turned into full-blown laughter at the pout now gracing her lover's face. "Harry, you can't tell me you honestly didn't see this coming."

Harry opened his mouth but quickly closed it as Katie continued in a no-nonsense voice.

"I mean look at you," Katie waved a hand in Harry's general direction. "Do you have any idea of how mouth-wateringly attractive you are? The face, the hair, the eyes, _the body_…Good God Harry, your money alone would make some women salivate but combined with everything else, you'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not want to jump you."

Harry quirked an eyebrow, "Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Well," Katie said wryly as she ran her finger seductively over the edge of the menu that sat on the table in front of her, "It's been a long week and I know that you only mentioned dinner tonight but…I was wondering…" Her eyes shot up and met Harry's, "If you maybe wanted to spend the night tonight?"

Harry sighed, his eyes dropping to his hands that now sat still on the table in front of him. Admitting to Katie that he was in no shape whatsoever to deal with any physical contact was out of the question. He _did _have his pride left even if he had lost the love of his life; and after all, he _was _a male. Saying he was not in the mood for sex was not an option.

Katie seemed to sense this hesitancy because the smile that had previously been gracing her face suddenly dropped to a look of concern. "Oh Merlin, what happened? She's not marrying him or something is she?"

Harry looked up at her, not saying a word, and simply nodded.

"Oh bollocks," she said, reaching across the table to take his hand. "I'm sorry Harry. When did this happen?"

"Well," Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "It hasn't yet. Colin's proposing tonight."

Katie looked at him incredulously. "And you're just letting him!"

Harry stared at his lover miserably. "What am I supposed to do, beat him to the punch and ask Ginny to marry me instead?"

"Is that what you want to do?" Katie reached across the table to twine her fingers through Harry's in support.

"No," Harry said after a brief pause during which time he seriously considered saying yes. He _did _love her and truth be told, he couldn't imagine settling down with anyone other than Ginny Weasley, but he couldn't put her in the situation where she would have to make that choice. He loved her too much to do that and besides, she didn't have feelings for him anymore. "I want her to be happy and quite frankly if Colin makes her happy than I'll support that decision. I just wish…"

"That things had worked out differently? That you had finally spoken up and confessed your feelings to her before she went out and got herself almost engaged?" Katie said, successfully spitting out in succession the negative thoughts that were currently spinning in Harry's brain.

"Yeah," Harry squeezed Katie's fingers gently, falling silent and knowing that Katie would understand why. After all, she did have her own disappointments to deal with. Oliver had moved in with Fleur just last week. He was broken from his thoughts, however, as chaos descended upon the table that he and Katie shared.

"Oh my God, it's Harry Potter!" a girl from across the room screamed. Harry rolled his eyes. Ever since the now infamous issue of _Witch Weekly_ had come out he had been getting that reaction from a lot of females. The overly excited girl wouldn't have been a problem tonight- if she hadn't sparked a similar reaction from the rest of the female population in the crowded pub.

"C'mon," Harry spat out to Katie, gripping her hand more tightly and standing up, motioning for her to do the same.

"Harry, what…" she asked confusedly, standing up anyway. After years of playing together, first on Hogwarts Quidditch team and then for the Cannons, she trusted Harry implicitly. That didn't mean she couldn't be perplexed by the way Harry was now forcibly dragging her from the pub and into Diagon Alley, "Harry, stop! Where are we going!"

"Back to your place," Harry murmured, looking over his shoulder anxiously.

"Oooh…."Katie purred, "Changed your mind then, did you?"

"No," Harry said, hurrying faster up Diagon Alley to the door that would lead to Katie's flat. "They changed it for me."

"They?" Katie looked around for who Harry could be talking about but came up short-handed as she took in the deserted nature of the Alley in front of them.

"They," Harry hissed under his breath, motioning with his head to the women now streaming into the Alley behind them. "Now run along unless you want to spend the next hour or so fighting off flying knickers and signing autographs."

Katie didn't need to be told twice. So this was what Harry had been talking about when he mentioned the hoards of women who had been following him around for the last few days. Fortunately for both of them though, her flat was only a stone's throw from the entrance to Diagon Alley, located above the storefront of _Quality Quidditch Supplies_.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as they made it unhindered up the stairway to Katie's cozy one-bedroom flat. He watched silently as his lover unlocked the door and motioned for him to join her inside.

"Well," Katie said succinctly as she shut the door with a click, the sound resounding through the silent flat like a coffin being nailed shut. In this case, however, the proverbial coffin was tangible. In short, if Harry wanted any privacy over the next hour of so he would have to stay here at Katie's until the women that were even now streaming by the flat had calmed down and gone home.

Indeed, Katie had opted for a flat with no floo and, due to security measures placed upon Diagon Alley during the war against Voldemort, apparating was no longer possible.

"Do you do this often?" Katie asked as she took a seat on the couch, patting the seat next to her in welcome to her lover who was even now standing near the door nervously. Why, Katie didn't know. There wasn't anything to be afraid of. She wouldn't bite.

Not hard anyway.

Truth be told, watching this side of Harry emerge was strangely erotic. For all the time she had known him, many—for various reasons— had sought him. The fact that now the only reason he was being courted by others was because of his looks was a major turn-on. It was true after all of what they said about not appreciating something until someone else wanted it. Katie had it, and was the only woman really who had total and complete access to the body of one Harry James Potter. This was not to say that it would always be this way. No, Katie knew that someday Harry would be someone else's and that was fine by her.

Just as long as that someone was Ginny Weasley.

Harry, for all his hesitancy, deserved to be happy with the one woman that he had forever loved so completely that he was willing to let her marry another man in order for her to be happy. Of course Katie wasn't going to let that happen, but the fact that Harry was even willing to consider this scenario spoke volumes as to the depth of feeling he lavished upon his best friend's sister.

She was broken from her thoughts by Harry's gentle chuckle in response to her earlier comment, as he took her less than subtle hint and moved toward the couch, sitting down next to her.

"Well, take your jacket off, stay awhile." She said quietly. "It's not like those girls are going to let you leave anytime soon are they?"

"No," Harry said heavily, taking his jacket off and setting it over the back of the couch. "I'll be lucky if they let me leave tonight at all."

Katie fell silent. He said this as if it were a bad thing. It was a testament to how depressed Ginny Weasley obviously had made him. Harry Potter, who Katie had discovered was quite possibly the randiest male she had ever met (it was true what they said about the quiet ones…) didn't see the distinctly naughty possibilities with being trapped in a flat with a woman who had made it clear that she was more than willing to spend the night with him shagging his brains out. This was the difference between the two of them. Katie, while female, had a libido fuelled by disappointment and the love of a man who only viewed her as a best friend. Harry on the other hand, apparently brooded and became withdrawn when faced with a similar situation, his ordinarily raging libido dwindling to almost nothing.

It wasn't the reaction Katie wanted, to say the least.

"I know you were hoping for something more…" Harry started awkwardly, looking down at his hands for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening. Katie had learned that he did this when he was inwardly beating himself up and she had had enough of it.

"Then a nice chat?" Katie finished for him. "Yes, I was but you're my friend and quite frankly I've missed you this week. Quidditch isn't exactly conducive to conversation beyond passing the quaffle, now is it? Besides," she paused, reaching over and taking his hand into hers. "Sometimes there are more important things to deal with."

Harry met her eyes and smiled sadly. "Thanks Katie. It's good to have someone to talk to about this. I can't really discuss this with Ron and Hermione now can I?" He sighed. Even though he knew Katie understood that he was only capable of talk this evening, he found himself choosing to be silent. Katie knew how he felt about Ginny. It seemed pointless then to wax poetic upon a topic than was now out of his control. "But I've found that I really don't want to talk about it at present. What's done is done and there's nothing I can do to change the situation now is there?"

Harry shrugged, looking more deeply into Katie's eyes as his own twinkled mischievously. He might not be in the mood, but that didn't mean he couldn't help his lover out…. "Now lie back."

Katie's brow furrowed in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Lie. Back." Harry murmured, dropping a kiss onto her collarbone, his depression suddenly replaced by a single-minded need to provide someone in his life with a feeling that was positive. Katie had made it quite clear that she wanted sex tonight and, despite the fact that he didn't feel up to it at the moment (no pun intended of course), he would be more than happy to satisfy his own self-esteem and overall pride by giving his pseudo-girlfriend an orgasm she wouldn't soon forget.

(There is more to this story but it is rated NC-17. The full entry is located at my yahoogroup:http/groups. was almost glad that they hadn't had sex that night. She wasn't quite sure she would have survived the experience. She gulped, silently willing her body to calm down from the intense orgasm she had just been given. They still had things to talk about this evening and it wouldn't be accomplished with her lying on the couch twitching. First things first though, if she wanted Harry to ever be able to hear again, she had better remove her thighs from around his head.

"Thank you," she murmured, closing her eyes as the aftershocks continued to give her little jolts of pleasure at the movement of her legs.

"You're welcome," Harry stood up, his ears buzzing, and went to the bathroom, washing his face quickly and wiping it with a towel before dropping it in the hamper next to the door and going back out to the living room. Katie had gotten up during the brief span that he had spent in the bathroom cleaning up. She emerged from the kitchen as he was noticing this though, wearing her black satin bathrobe and carrying a bottle of fire whiskey and two shot glasses.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What's this for?" he asked.

Katie shrugged. "Well, we solved my 'need' for the evening. How about we start on yours?"

"Need?" Harry asked wryly.

"Need," Katie sat down next to him on the couch and poured two shots into the glasses she had set onto the coffee table. "You, Harry Potter, are going to have something to drink and I'm going to listen as you tell me all about what happened with Ginny."

"Katie, you don't have to do this."

"Yes," Katie picked up the now full shot glasses and handed Harry one. "Yes I do. You're one of my best friends Harry, and this is what friends do, they talk and they listen."

Harry smirked, taking the shot in one swift movement. He appreciated Katie's sentiment and he would take her up on it. "Funny, I have two very good friends and I've never once ended up in bed with either one of them."

"Yes, well," Katie swallowed her own shot and reached for the bottle of fire whiskey to re-fill their glasses. She set the bottle back down and held up her glass, shooting Harry a mischievous grin. "You give absolutely excellent oral sex and I'd be a fool to turn you down when you offer it." She lifted her eyes skyward. "Quite frankly, Ron and Hermione don't know what they're missing…"

Harry lifted his own glass, laughing heartily at Katie's joke. "Shall we toast to that then?"

Katie's eyes twinkled, her head nodding. "To oral sex and especially to Harry Potter's talented tongue."

Harry's eyes met hers and he smirked, Ginny forgotten for the moment as the levity of the situation lightened his emotional burden. "Why thank you my dear."

And with that, they drained the shots.

"Now," Katie smacked her lips and reached for the bottle of fire whiskey again. They would be very drunk if she had anything to say about it. "Let's have a chat about our favourite red-head…"


	4. Aftermath

**Chapter 4: Aftermath**

Ginny Weasley entered the kitchen to her parents' house a different woman. It was the morning after she had suspected Colin would propose to her and she had been right; after they had arrived at the restaurant, Colin had spent all of about a half hour in nervous conversation before getting down on one knee and popping the question.

Strangely enough, she hadn't felt a moment's hesitation when she said yes. But then again, this might have been because of the sight she had been treated to as she sat waiting for Colin to get to the point. Indeed, Harry had been with Katie at the Leaky Cauldron, a stone's throw from the upscale restaurant where she and Colin sat, and Ginny had personally watched as a hoarde of girls had chased them down into the alley from the pub, driving the two of them into Katie's flat. After that, Ginny hadn't watched anymore, knowing without a doubt that whatever was going to happen in the flat between Katie and Harry when they became trapped inside, they certainly weren't thinking about her.

And now, as she wandered into the home she had known since birth, she let her eyes linger on the diamond that graced her ring finger. It was big—far bigger than anything she had ever thought Colin could afford, but apparently he had been thinking about doing this for a while, and had been putting money aside accordingly. Still, it all seemed slightly suspicious.

She was startled from her thoughts by a noise coming from the doorway behind her. She turned and took in the sight of Harry, who looked thoroughly hung over.

Ginny raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly. Apparently getting pissed had been the order of the evening beyond, of course, escaping the hoarde of screaming girls. "All right there, Harry?"

"Hmmm" Harry murmured quietly, grimacing as he moved towards the kitchen cabinet where he knew Molly kept a supply of potions for nights of excess such as the one Katie had subjected him to. After he had taken care of Katie's 'needs' of the previous evening, he had found himself taking care of his own with drink and a good chat with his girlfriend. Of course he was paying for it now, having left the only remaining hangover potion in Katie's kitchen for Katie that morning when he had snuck out of the flat.

Ginny took in the obviously hung-over man in front of her and raised an eyebrow, going to the cabinet he was currently searching diligently and removing the bottle that he wanted (located conveniently, yet elusively in front of him). "I think this is what you're looking for."

Harry didn't even say thank you, but took the bottle wordlessly from her hands and brought it to his lips and swallowed. Truthfully, he didn't want to say much to Ginny at that moment because of the possibility that the conversation he might have with her—specifically regarding her possible engagement to Colin.

Harry hadn't, as of yet, gotten an 'official' glimpse of the ring since Ginny had her left hand in her jacket pocket. He knew what it looked like as he had helped Colin pick it out. He had also helped pay for it, having gone into the jewellers that he and Colin had been planning on visiting the night before and arranging with the storeowner to discount any ring they chose by 50 when quoting prices to the younger man—Harry would pick up the tab later.

And so Harry didn't even acknowledge the fact that his best friend's sister had even given him anything, instead opting to listen to his taste buds, which were currently screaming in agony as the harsh tasting hangover cure passed his lips. It was to this sight that Ron and Hermione entered.

"Oy, Harry." Ron smirked in an expression resembling the one his sister had shot his best friend as she had handed him the potion bottle. "Had a good night, then?"

Harry simply shot Ron a look of disgust and placed the now half empty potion bottle on the table before flopping himself into the nearest chair and burying his head in his arms.

"You shouldn't drink so much, Harry," Hermione said soothingly, as she sat down next to him and rubbed a hand across his back.

"No, you shouldn't," Ginny said in agreement, taking the bottle of hangover cure from the table and placing it back in the cabinet with the hand that she had previously hidden in her jacket pocket. If she wanted to be truthful with herself, she would acknowledge that she was a little ashamed by the ring she was wearing. It was a sign that she, Ginny Weasley, had finally given up on something—a first in her life and a moment she had hoped she would never have to face. For that reason, when she had seen Harry in the kitchen doorway, she had unconsciously shoved her hand in the pocket of her jacket, only noticing that it was there just moments before.

The sun, now shining happily into the kitchen, apparently had other ideas, purposely catching her ring and making it sparkle. Hermione, having looked up a moment to watch what Ginny was doing, shrieked, startling Ginny and making Harry cover his ears and moan as the loud sound resounded through his already pounding head—the sight of the ring on her hand made his heart break a little more.

"Oh Merlin, he finally did it, didn't he?" Hermione got up from the table and rushed over to Ginny, taking the hand with the ring on it in her own and openly admiring the hunk of centuries old rock currently residing there.

"Did what?" Ron, who seemed to be eternally clueless, asked, moving closer to his sister and wife and looking curiously at what they were staring at.

"Proposed!" Hermione exclaimed, holding up the hand that held the ring to show her husband. Ron looked startled, his eyes widening and shooting towards Harry. He had always assumed Harry would be the one placing a ring on his baby sister's hand. Ginny, however, had shot down all hopes of this when she had gotten over her crush on the Boy-Who-Lived. As for Harry, even if he had ever felt anything for his sister, that ship had apparently sailed with the arrival of his mystery girl, whom he and Hermione were still wondering who she was.

"And just when were you going to tell us about this?" Ron demanded, drawing Ginny into a hug, thereby negating any connotations that he wasn't happy about the situation and cementing, in his mind, the role of supportive big brother. If Ron were to be utterly and completely honest with himself, his wife, and Ginny, he would have come clean and admitted that he had never been 100 sure about Colin. But that would have ruined the special moment he was currently having with his only sister

"Soon," Ginny smiled, purposely not looking over to Harry, who still sat with his head buried in his arms.

"My little sister's getting married," Ron murmured into her ear, drawing back to ask his next question, "So, when's the wedding?"

"Colin and I haven't discussed it yet. We were hoping to talk to Mum first," Ginny said. She wished that her mother were here now so that she would have some sort of distraction. She couldn't ignore either Harry's eyes boring into the back of her head or the guilt mixed with the feeling that this whole situation was wrong that was somehow unsettling her emotionally. Indeed, if she hadn't been concentrating so hard on ignoring these feelings, she would have noticed that Harry had suddenly stood up from the kitchen table and had bolted up the stairs. Obliviously, she continued her response she had been formulating to Hermione's question. "Maybe after Quidditch season ends though."

Sitting at the kitchen table, Harry's head pounded not only from the hangover he was currently suffering from, but from the knowledge that Ginny was actually going to marry Colin. With a sigh, he inadvertently ran an appraising eye over Ginny who still wore the sexy green sheath from the night before. Colin was a lucky man. His eyes continued their journey north, stopping to gaze at Ginny's shapely bottom. No lines marred its curves…

His eyes went wide as he realized that she wasn't wearing any knickers under her dress. A thought suddenly occurred to him. Judging by the distinct lack of knickers, Colin and Ginny may have indulged in similar activity to what he and Katie had shared the evening before. It was becoming difficult to breathe, as his jealous mind conjured images of exactly how Ginny may have lost her knickers

Harry suddenly felt his stomach turn from the relative calm lake it had been to a suddenly churning sea, and he knew that the alcohol he had drunk the night before would soon be making another appearance. Quickly, he stood up from the table and ran up the stairs, bolting into the second floor bathroom and dropping to the floor next to the toilet just as his stomach rebelled and the hangover got the better of him.

Hermione, who still stood next to Ginny, nodded her head in agreement in response to her idea of having the wedding after Quidditch season. "That's a good idea. What do you think, Harry?"

But Harry was nowhere to be found, having left the kitchen table sometime during their brief conversation. Hermione shrugged, turning her attention back to Ginny and Ron and making the assumption that Harry had simply gone up to bed to sleep off the remnants of the hangover that not even a potion could cure him of. Hermione frowned as she listened to Ginny tell her and Ron exactly how she had become engaged the night before. She was worried about Harry. She was worried for Ginny as well, for that matter. Indeed, for all the excitement she seemed to have lavished on Ginny on her engagement, she couldn't help but feel a little odd about the whole thing. Ginny didn't seem as excited as a bride-to-be should be, and she had kept shooting looks toward Harry. If Hermione didn't know better, she would have said that Ginny still had feelings for him, but Hermione was fairly certain that Ginny had grown out of that years ago… then again, Hermione had far bigger things to worry about. Ginny appeared happy and that was the most important thing. Harry, on the other hand, was so miserable that he had left the kitchen completely, and, to make matters worse, neither Hermione nor Ron knew exactly why.

They thought they knew, though. The night before, Ron had come down to the sitting room after Harry had left for his date with Katie, and they had talked for several hours about Harry's 'mystery girl,' whoever she was. Hermione furrowed her brow, her attention wandering from the present discussion, as a nagging sensation pulled insistently on her brain. Something about the conversation the night before… Hermione shook her head and turned her attention back to her husband and sister-in-law. Whatever it was, she could worry about it later; it certainly wasn't as important as Ginny's upcoming wedding, and, at any rate, Harry had looked quite ill when she and Ron had come into the house from their walk that morning.

He deserved some time to himself to sleep off the hangover and recuperate. Maybe it was best that he had some time to himself. After all, in a short time it was almost certain that Molly and Arthur would return from their evening in London and then it would be all wedding talk. As a male, Harry was probably better off resting now, for the loud chatter that would most certainly resound throughout the house in only a few short hours.

Harry hugged the toilet bowl as the remnants of everything he had eaten from what seemed like the entire year made a re-appearance. Even the hangover potion he had taken hadn't been able to stem the nausea he felt at the news that Ginny had said yes to Colin's proposal.

He was pretty sure that it wasn't the fact that he had overindulged the night before that he was currently 'praying to the porcelain god'. No, Harry was fairly certain that this was all Ginny's fault. How could she have accepted Colin? Sure, it was true that Harry hadn't said anything about his feelings for her, but that didn't mean that she had to say yes to Colin…

Harry stood up and flushed the toilet, running a hand through his already messy hair and sighing as he realized that his problem wasn't the fact that Ginny had said yes, or the fact that he had seen evidence that she was having sex with Colin. The problem was that he hadn't spoken up about his feelings for her before she had had a chance to formulate a relationship with Colin in the first place.

The night before had been therapeutic. He and Katie had talked for several hours before the drink had gotten the better of them and they had stumbled into her bedroom. Indeed, the amount of alcohol and the angsty conversation had gotten the better of them, and, despite Harry's thoughts that he was in neither the correct frame of mind nor the correct mood, he and Katie had had sex before drunkenly falling asleep in each other's arms.

And now, as he looked at his appearance in the mirror, a new sense of determination set into him. His situation might be bleak, especially since Ginny had accepted/ agreed to Colin's proposal, but that didn't mean that he had to completely fall apart. He was happy that Ginny was happy. No, this sense of hopelessness could be used for a better cause. Suddenly Harry felt a little better.

The sound of Ron's voice calling Harry broke him out of his train of thought. With a sigh, he reached for his toothbrush to brush away the stale taste of vomit in his mouth. No one could know about his unresolved feelings: not Ron, not Hermione, and especially not Ginny. If they did, well, Harry didn't want to think of the looks of pity that would be thrown his way. After all, he had had his chance at Hogwarts when Ginny actually had feelings for him, and he had completely ignored her. What made him think that he even deserved her love now?

Quickly, he finished brushing his teeth and turned his thoughts away from his own situation to Katie's. Indeed, if he couldn't help himself, he might as well help her. Harry smirked at his reflection as Ron called his name again. Somehow, he would be getting Oliver away from Fleur and into Katie's arms. It was the least he could do under the circumstances. Of course he had never broken up a relationship before only to put another one together.

Well, there was always a first time for everything.

"Coming Ron," he called, smiling more broadly now. Oliver didn't stand a chance.


	5. Jealousy

**Chapter 5: Jealousy**

Harry Potter stood in the locker room of the Chudley Cannons, a towel hanging loosely about his hips. The aches of a game well played—210-40 in favour of the Cannons—sent twinges of discomfort throughout his body. With a sigh, another stray drop of water trickled down his well-defined chest, and he reached into his locker for his clothes.

"Good game," a soft, seductive voice called from directly behind him. Startled, Harry turned and took in the sight of Katie, also clad only in a towel, as she went to her own locker.

Harry grinned and pulled his boxers out of his locker. "Not so bad, yourself. You were on fire out there tonight."

Katie shrugged and shot him a sly grin as she dropped the towel and, naked now, picked up her knickers and slipped them on. "I do what I can. Looks like we've got the Nationals in the bag if we keep going at this pace."

Harry nodded, completely ignoring his girlfriend's naked body as he dropped his own towel and slipped his boxers on. Truth be told, he was a little nervous about the possibility that they might make it to the finals. After all, it was now two months into the Quidditch season, and the top two teams—the Chudley Cannons and the Holyhead Harpies—seemed poised to spar for the National Cup. The trouble with this lay, of course, with the problem that had been plaguing Harry since his third year at Hogwarts—one way or another—Ginny Weasley.

"Well, I think we have a problem." Katie broke into his thoughts with a smirk, standing in front of him wearing only her knickers and bra. "Should I be worried about our relationship?"

"Hmmm?" Harry mused, reaching for his jeans.

Katie rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty much naked here, Harry, and you're not even looking. Hell, I'm insulted that you don't have an erection right now."

"That's nice, sweetheart," he mused, pulling on his jeans and turning to reach into his locker for his shirt.

Katie's hand was propped upon her right hip in annoyance at her boyfriend's ambivalence. With a huff of impatience, she took matters into her own hands and shoved Harry back against his locker, the sound resounding throughout the empty locker room.

"Katie, what the fu… oomph!" Harry started as pain resonated throughout his back, the metal of the locker leaving an imprint as his girlfriend launched herself at him. She melded her lips to his, shoving her tongue into his unresisting mouth. The kiss itself lasted maybe 20 seconds, but the desired effect was achieved as Katie pulled back and saw blatant lust burning in the eyes of her lover.

"Do I have your attention?" she said softly and mischievously. Truth be told, she was just toying with him, choosing to play with her boyfriend here in the Quidditch locker room in the hopes that Oliver would perhaps stumble in and become jealous—a far fetched concept, but one that Katie held out hope for in her overly girly mind.

"Um-Hmm," Harry murmured, drawing Katie closer and instinctively moving his hand to start removing her bra. Harry hadn't been planning on getting shagged at the Quidditch Pitch today but, considering that the locker room was empty and his girlfriend had just thrown herself at him, he could deal with whatever happened.

"So I was thinking…" she murmured, swatting at the offending hand to prevent Harry from having his way with her right there in the locker room.

"Mm-Hmm," Harry continued to murmur, his lips coming down onto hers, and his hands roaming in the general direction of her breasts.

Katie returned the kiss, noticing that Harry was employing his mouth to sufficiently distract her from the fact that her bra had fallen to the floor and his hands were playing with her nipples. Harry Potter, Katie had learned, was a 'breast man' if she had ever met one. "…That maybe we should go back to my place after this and…" She was interrupted again by a less than amused cough.

Harry, ever the responsible one and, in this case, the gentleman, pulled his girlfriend closer to shield her from whomever might get an eyeful of Katie wearing only a pair of skimpy lace knickers. She obviously couldn't turn around without flashing whoever it was behind her. He raised his head, freezing as he took in their audience.

It seemed that Oliver had chosen this day as the day to invite the entire press corps into the locker rooms to interview his star players. However, he hadn't expected to find them in a compromising position.

This wasn't to say that he wasn't aware that Katie and Harry were seeing each other—sleeping together even—but, until that moment, it hadn't been physically manifested for Oliver to see. Furthermore, even though he had a live in girlfriend, Oliver felt himself getting turned on by the sight of his best friend clad only in a scrap of fabric that he hardly qualified as knickers and her obvious arousal, judging by the erect nipples she was currently sporting.

But these feelings needed to be put aside while Oliver dealt with the matter at hand. Indeed, it was proving to be embarrassing both for Oliver and for Katie and Harry, as Oliver had promised a professional interview with his star Seeker and best Chaser, and Katie and Harry hadn't, until now, been open about their relationship. Oliver could just envision the front page of the next day's Daily Prophet and, for that reason, he wanted to help restore some of his best friend's pride.

The fact that she looked amazing in her knickers was beside the point

"Harry, what… holy shit!" Katie blurted out as she turned around in shock, pulling herself from her boyfriend's insistent grip, giving the press an eyeful before Harry pushed her behind him and handed her the button down shirt that he had taken out of his locker seconds before Katie had begun her attack. Harry's reaction had been second nature as he was used to the attention that the press foisted upon anyone with a juicy story or, in his case, a scar on his forehead,

Harry turned his back to the press, who were currently snapping pictures like there was no tomorrow, and said, "Katie, it's going to be fine," in a low voice, a small smirk gathering on his face. This was just the opportunity he had been looking for to turn Oliver's world upside down. The truth of the matter was that Oliver had feelings for Katie. After all, she was his best friend. He just didn't know the depth of them yet. Harry didn't mind, in the least, taking this opportunity to show Oliver exactly what Harry knew he felt.

"What are you talking about?" Katie murmured harshly. "I just had a picture of me, practically starkers, taken for the Daily Prophet!"

"It's part of the plan," he continued, reaching down to Katie's hands and finishing buttoning the shirt she had been angrily doing up.

"What plan, Harry? What did you do?" Katie raged quietly, impatient with her boyfriend.

"I didn't do anything. Now do you want Oliver or not?" Harry said quietly, brushing a hand in comfort over Katie's flushed cheek in an expression of affection.

Katie looked at him as if he had gone crazy. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'll tell you later; just follow my lead." Harry ignored this last question and turned back to the press. "Hello, everyone. How are you all doing today?"

"Mr. Potter, what is the meaning of this? Are you and Miss Bell engaged in an affair?" the reporter from the Magical World News asked.

"Yes, something like that," Harry murmured with a smirk, shooting a look back at his girlfriend and then turning back to the reporters, his torso still bare. "Could you give us a second before we begin the interview? Katie and I would like to get dressed."

Oliver, still stunned by the show he had been treated to only moments before, sprang into action at these words. "Yes, yes. Let's just give my two star players a moment to compose themselves."

With a sigh, he shot an annoyed look at Harry and Katie and hustled the reporters out of the locker room.

Katie watched as Oliver shuffled the last reporter out of the room and spun around angrily. "What the fuck just happened? Did you know this was going on today?"

Harry sunk down onto the bench and shot Katie a sly look. "Did you see the look on his face?"

Katie had had enough. She wanted a straight answer, NOW. "Harry, you tell me, right now, that you had nothing to do with this, or I swear…"

"All right," he said, choosing that moment to pull Katie forcefully down onto his lap.

"Don't touch me, Harry Potter," Katie yelped, moving to get off his lap, but Harry held onto her firmly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you want an explanation or not?"

Katie stilled. She DID want to know exactly what Harry was up to.

"Right, then," Harry said, as if he were starting a friendly conversation about the weather. "I had nothing to do with this."

Katie looked at him incredulously, not willing to believe this piece of information.

"I didn't," Harry re-iterated. "But you have to admit that it is good timing."

"Good timing?" Katie tried again to extricate herself from Harry's lap. "The Daily Prophet has a starkers picture of me, and you think that that's 'good timing'?"

"Nearly starkers, my dear. Nearly starkers," Harry murmured, running a hand up her thigh. "The Wizarding World will just have to suffer from the fact that, at the moment, only I have the pleasure of seeing you starkers. Speaking of…"

Katie slapped at the offending hand. "There is no way you're getting shagged now, Harry Potter. You lost that chance when you invited the press in to take 'nearly starkers' pictures of me."

"Hmm. Again, I didn't do anything. Oliver did. And a fine man he is, too." Harry shrugged his shoulders and gave her a lop-sided grin as his hand continued to roam up her thigh, until he almost reached…

"Would you stop that?" Katie removed herself from her boyfriend's lap in one smooth movement. "I'm serious, Harry."

"I can see that," he shook his head, still smiling. "Did you see his face by the way?"

"Who are you talking about?" Katie asked in an annoyed voice, as she went to her locker and grabbed her jeans, slipping them on over her knickers.

"Oliver," Harry replied, reaching into his own locker for his socks and shoes. "May I have my shirt back, please?"

"What do you mean by that, Harry?" Katie said, her heart leaping in hope. Maybe the tide was changing. After all, Fleur had been gone more and more from the flat lately; Oliver had told her. Maybe there was hope after all.

Harry shrugged. "Just that I want my shirt back."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Not that. The other."

"Oh! You mean Oliver." He pulled his right sock on, purposely dragging out his words in order to drive Katie crazy.

"What about Oliver?" Katie said impatiently, undoing Harry's shirt, taking it off, and handing it to him before reaching to the floor for the bra that Harry had taken off of her earlier.

"Well…" Harry took the shirt and pulled it on, his hands moving to do up the buttons. "The moment you turned around 'nearly starkers', I think Oliver's eyes nearly fell out of his head. He looked like I look when Ginny's with Colin."

Katie stilled, her bra half on and half off. "He didn't."

"He did," Harry said firmly. "Trust me. I've had that look on my face enough times to recognize it when I see it. It was jealousy."

"Jealousy?" Katie said hesitantly, unwilling to get her hopes up without a valid reason.

Harry nodded. "Um-Hmm. Jealousy. And a bit of lust."

"But that means that…" Katie reached into her locker for her shirt.

"You might stand a chance," Harry finished for her, tying his shoelaces.

Katie pulled her t-shirt over her head, trying to keep her heart from beating uncontrollably. "And he and Fleur…"

"Having some problems, they are." Harry stood up from the bench and grabbed his bag and jacket out of his locker, locking it, finally, with a short wave of his wand. "Just yesterday, she came on to me here in this very locker room."

"Here?" Katie said in shock. "Where was I?"

Harry shot her a pointed look, "Talking with Oliver in the other room."

"Oh," Katie said, pausing slightly, her brow furrowing. "Wait. What do you mean by 'came on to you', anyway?"

"We're talking hands down my trousers," Harry finished, grimacing as he remembered the blatant physical assault he had been subjected to. Any other time, he likely wouldn't have minded. After all, it wasn't everyday that a beautiful woman came into your locker room, undid your trousers, and stuck their hands inside. But he had just been speaking to Ginny and her family, who had come to the game that day… with Colin. Harry, understandably, hadn't been in the mood for anything happy, let alone anything sexual.

Katie's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

He looked at her as if he wasn't sure if she had been serious, "Extremely. She tried to go down on me, too, but we heard you two coming in."

"Would you have gone through with it?" Katie asked after a moment, as she found her socks and shoes and started to put them on.

"No," Harry said succinctly. "If you will recall, I was a tad preoccupied at the time. The Weasley's, including Ginny and, of course, Colin, were at the game and I really wasn't in the right frame of mind for anything. Besides that, I DO have a steady girlfriend right now, and, although very shortly she'll be leaving me for another man, I'm not the type to stray."

"And I appreciate that," Katie sent Harry a sympathetic look and walked over to give him a hug. He held her tight, returning the hug. He was offering her encouragement for the battle they faced getting Oliver to dump the fickle Fleur and take up with the best friend he obviously had feelings for, and she was attempting to help him forget the woman who was, even now, planning her wedding to another man.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, would you two get off each other!" Oliver said in an exasperated tone as he came into the locker room to find Harry and Katie in yet another compromising position, albeit clothed this time. "You do realize you're going to be the Daily Prophet's headline tomorrow, don't you?"

Harry pulled away from Katie and smiled at Oliver. "I rather thought so. I'm actually surprised that they hadn't figured it out sooner."

"Well, we have been careful about it," Katie said amicably, turning around to close her locker and pick up her bag.

"We have, haven't we?" Harry said, offering his arm to his girlfriend. She took it slyly, just missing the jealous look that Oliver was sending their way at the intimacy the couple shared.

Indeed, in the past few weeks especially, Oliver had noticed that the relationship between him and his own girlfriend had become… strange. Fleur was always at work, and, when she wasn't at work, she was always somewhere other than the flat. If he hadn't known better, he would have said that she was having an affair, but that couldn't be it. Fleur wasn't like that…

"No sex in public places…" Harry went on to describe how he and Katie had pulled the wool over the Wizarding media's eyes.

"No expensive dinners in visible areas and, most importantly…" Katie continued.

"Always use protection of the invisible variety," Harry finished.

"Excuse me?" Oliver queried, clearly shocked. What was this about invisible protection?

Katie's eyes twinkled. "We use the invisibility cloak a lot," she clarified for her best friend, knowing exactly where his mind had gone to at that last statement. She rolled her eyes as she thought of how Oliver's mind had very likely focused on what he would do for a Chaser if she ended up pregnant and unable to play… "Don't worry. No risk in my being out of commission due to an unplanned pregnancy." And this was true. That was part of the deal; Harry and Katie were allowed to exploit each other sexually but not to the point that it would affect any future relationships they might have. It wasn't as uncomplicated as that, though, and both of them had known it. Indeed, Harry knew that when he succeeded in getting Katie and Oliver together, he would forever remember his time with Katie fondly. After all, he and she were friends, and, not only that, they were lovers… albeit lovers who didn't love each other, but lovers, just the same.

Oliver interrupted these inner musings with a red-faced response to Katie's last candid remark. Truthfully, that thought hadn't come into his head, but maybe he should be talking more to Katie about that. After all, there was no sense in putting their star Chaser on maternity leave when it was completely unnecessary… "I'm so glad you think so highly of me. For your information, I wasn't even thinking of that."

"Oh come off it, Oliver." Katie let go of Harry's arm and moved over to her best friend to take his. "You know you have a dirty and mercenary mind. You were probably picturing how badly we'd lose the National Cup if you had to re-train a Chaser line at this point." Harry, ever the supportive boyfriend, simply took Katie's bag and slung it over the shoulder that held his own, not seeming to care if Oliver monopolized his girlfriend's time.

Oliver thought this was rather odd. If Katie were his girlfriend, he didn't know if he could accept the fact that she had such a close best friend who was male, ESPECIALLY one that looked like that in only a pair of knickers…

"No, no I don't, and no, that wasn't what I was thinking of, at all," he said finally. Katie had shot him an odd look over the amount of time it had taken him to answer. Indeed, his mind was still lingering on the burning image of his best friend in only black lace…

From behind them, Harry simply smirked, knowing exactly where Oliver's mind was, judging by the look on his face a moment ago. This plan, however impromptu, was panning out perfectly. Now Harry needed Oliver to catch Fleur in a compromising position with someone, and Oliver and Katie were as good as 'together'. Perhaps the fact that he and Katie were going to be displayed on the front page of the Daily Prophet the next day wasn't such a bad thing, after all…


	6. Gossip

**Chapter 6: Gossip**

Ginny woke feeling refreshed. Indeed, all was well with the world; her career was going exactly according to plan, She was doing extremely well as the Harpies new Chaser, even having gone so far as to be proclaimed "The Newest Star of the Quidditch World" by _The Daily Prophet _and, according to the speculators, it was going to come down to her team and Harry's in the finals. Indeed, Ginny couldn't ignore the fact that not only was her career on track, but so was her love life. Colin and she were scheduled to get married in the garden behind the Burrow the week after the finals were played or, if the Harpies reached the Nationals, after that.

And now, as she hopped out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast, she couldn't help but feel a little lighter at heart. After all, today was the anniversary of the day that she had given up on Harry and for the first time in years, she felt no regret. She had Colin, and Harry… well, Harry had Katie. With a sigh, she stepped down the last two steps into the kitchen and stopped short at the turmoil she saw there.

The kitchen was filled with letters and owls, the latter of which were hooting plaintively because there was no one to take their letters, forcing them to perch on various places on the kitchen counter and table.

"What are you all doing here?" Ginny said, scolding them. The owl closest to her seemed to roll her eyes and merely held out the leg that held her letter for Ginny to remove. With a raised eyebrow, she complied and took letter, which was addressed to Harry. Turning to make sure she was the only one in the kitchen, Ginny opened the letter quickly, not wanting Harry or her mother for that matter, to find out that she was reading his mail. She scanned it quickly and felt all the blood leave her face.

Ginny scrambled frantically through the pile of letters on the table, searching for the current issue of _The Daily Prophet_. Sure enough, on the front page was the story that she was looking for. 'Quidditch Darlings to Wed!' was the headline and featured a picture of Harry and Katie smiling at the camera, their faces reflecting the joy that Ginny knew they felt when they were around each other. But why hadn't they told anyone that they were planning on getting married?

"Hey Gin, what's... Bloody hell, has Harry been declared 'Sexiest Wizard Alive' again?" Ron asked as he came into the kitchen. "What's that you're looking at, by the way?"

"_Daily Prophet_," Ginny murmured, her eyes scanning the article, which detailed how _The Daily Prophet_ had gotten an exclusive interview from the couple. "It's an interesting front story really."

"Who's on the front page then? Someone wicked?" Ron leaned forward, reading the headline over his sister's shoulder. His eyes nearly shot out of his head when he saw who was on the cover. "What are they talking about? Harry is not getting married!"

"Is Harry getting married?" Molly exclaimed as she walked down the stairs and caught the last words her son had uttered.

"No Mum," Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry is not getting married."

"_The Daily Prophet_ says he is, Ron," Ginny piped up, looking doubtfully at her brother.

Ron returned this look with an incredulous look of his own. "And since when do you believe what _The Daily Prophet_ says?"

"Since they've got five pages of 'exclusive' pictures and interviews with the happy couple!" Ginny retorted in disbelief. Indeed, it appeared that _The Daily Prophet_ had finally got it right, if the pictures alone were any indication. She was pretty sure that when she had flipped through the pages earlier, she had seen one that featured the couple half naked: Katie without any clothing save a pair of knickers, and Harry looking quite fine in only a pair of loose fitting jeans.

"Give me that!" Ron's eyes narrowed as he grabbed the paper from his sister. Ginny had made a convincing argument. Ron's eyes nearly bugged out his head as he read through the story that Ginny had been telling him about; his sister had been right.

"What's wrong with Ron?" Hermione asked her mother-in-law as she came down for breakfast and took in the sight of her husband furiously reading _The Daily Prophet_, something that she knew Ron rarely did.

"Nothing, Hermione dear," Molly said soothingly. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine, thanks," Hermione said hesitantly, sitting down at the kitchen table and taking in the pile of letters that sat in front of her. "The baby actually let me sleep last night." And this was true. For the first time in close to a week the baby had stopped kicking her internal organs and waking her up at odd hours of the evening. "Ron, sweetie, are you okay?"

Ron sank down into the chair next to his wife and handed her the paper. "Harry is getting married."

Hermione shot Ron a sceptical look. "Yeah, right. Are we forgetting that this is the same man who said that he was never getting married because he might 'endanger someone'?"

"No, I'm serious," he said, pointing to the front page. "He's getting married… to Katie."

Hermione followed her husband's pointed finger and her jaw dropped. There, on the front cover, was a picture of Harry and Katie, their arms around each other – and a giant emerald sparkling on Katie's left hand. "Why didn't he tell us about this?"

Ron shrugged. "I dunno; maybe he didn't want to take the attention away from Ginny and Colin. You know how he is about those sorts of things."

"But still," Hermione shook her head and laid a hand onto her burgeoning belly. "We're his best friends. We should have at least known that this was coming."

"Well, we didn't," Ron shook his head and shrugged again. "But we have been rather busy, haven't we?"

Hermione frowned, still confused as to why Harry hadn't told them that he was going to propose. "Yes, we have. School begins soon and we're moving back to Hogwarts within the next few days."

"So we will," Ron sighed. He turned to Ginny, who was looking a little peaked. "It's a shock, isn't it?"

"What?" Ginny had been broken out of her shock-induced trance by her brother's voice. At that moment, she was in a state of turmoil , her emotions churning unhappily as the feelings she had thought were gone were now suddenly thrust into the forefront of her mind.

"Harry getting married, I mean. It's a shock," Ron continued, oblivious to the basket case his sister was turning into right beside him. He patted the unoccupied chair to his right, for his sister to sit in.

"Yeah," Ginny deadpanned, sitting down.

"He didn't even mention he had bought a ring, let alone that he was going to propose." Molly had decided to join into the conversation, sitting down on the opposite side of the table and gathering together all of the owls that still carried letters. They began to form a line so that she could first take off their letter and then give them one of the owl treats that sat on the kitchen table. "And, my goodness, he should have warned us; it's not sanitary to have this many birds in the house!"

Their light conversation was interrupted by the sound of Harry and Katie rushing into the kitchen through the crowd of reporters who waited outside of the Burrow. Many of them hadn't been lucky enough to go to the interview the night before and so had come to see them there.

Harry took in the sight of all the owls and groaned. _Not again._ Why couldn't he have had a simple interview, albeit one in which he had announced his surprise engagement...? No, everything in the life of Harry Potter apparently had to be a big deal. He also took in the sight of the people at the table and, judging by their shocked faces, realised that Katie and he had been out-ed as a couple quite publicly; apparently, his friends and surrogate family had read about it in _The Prophet_ that morning, along with the rest of the Wizarding World.

Truth be told, he hadn't planned to tell the press that he and Katie were engaged; it had just slipped out in an impulsive attempt to prompt Oliver to action. Fortunately, Katie had caught on quickly and managed to contain her look of shock until they had turned away from the reporters and Oliver. Indeed, she had been extremely angry when she had confronted him later, when they had found a moment to themselves. Katie was still a little peeved at him, mainly because the reporters had spread the word of the 'engagement' and informed a slew of other members of the press, who were, even now, camped out outside her front door...

"Well, if it isn't the happy couple?" Ron said, a genuine smile on his face as his best friend and his fiancée came into the kitchen. "When were you going to tell us this, anyway?"

Harry sat down across from his best friend at the table and pulled Katie down into his lap, catching Ginny's eyes as he did so. She looked a little ill, but he reckoned it was probably from something she had eaten. After all, the only other reason she would be reacting at all to Harry's engagement was either if she really hated Katie or if she had feelings for him like those he had for her. But this, of course, couldn't have been true. Harry didn't think that she'd be marrying another man if she had had feelings for him. He shook his head slightly and pulled Katie closer when she tried to get up, her hand coming down onto his shoulder and showing off the emerald ring that he had bought for her birthday a few days before.

Well, Harry HAD bought it for her birthday with the intention of giving it to her in a purely platonic way. Instead, he had ended up whipping it out and shoving it onto her hand as they had stood and answered questions for the press in their effort to speed up the evolution of Oliver's feelings for Katie. Katie, needless to say, had not reckoned his plan would succeed, but, when she had seen for herself the look that Oliver sported immediately upon the 'announcement', she had agreed that it had been a good idea.

"Sorry Ron," Harry said, shrugging boyishly. "It was really rather a surprise, actually."

Katie rolled her eyes. Surprise to say the least. SHE hadn't even been aware that he had had a ring with him for such 'surprising' occasions where one might have to pretend to be engaged. Katie eventually accepted his excuse; after all, her birthday WAS next week. A smirk gathered on her face as she remembered exactly how Harry had dealt with the situation the evening before, somehow convincing her to go along with his crazy plan.

"Katie, it's the only way," Harry had argued in protest. Here she was, so close to getting what she wanted so much, and she was ready to turn it down, because she hadn't felt comfortable demonstrating their relationship in the public sphere – and had even gone so far as to agreeing to enter into an engagement with him.

"How is it 'the only way'?" she had asked, confused by Harry's adamant attitude and greatly discomfited by the fact that the reporters to whom Harry had just announced their surprise were closely observing their 'chat'. Katie knew this was going to be a shock to the Wizarding World. After all, it wasn't as if they had even known that she and Harry had been dating each other, let alone that they were now engaged, a fact that Katie wasn't sure was even true.

"Men are all the same. The all want what they can't have," Harry continued, determined to get his way. "If he realises that you're engaged to me, he's going to go in the exact direction we want him to. Now, are you with me or not?"

"No, I'm not. Harry, what..."Katie continued to argue, agreeing with his logic but reluctant to go through with this sort of plan due to its deceptive nature. Indeed, she would rather expose Fleur for the slut that she was and have Oliver come to her naturally, than have her future with the man she loved shaped by half truths and calculated moves.

Harry decided to try another angle and appeal to Katie's mercenary side. "I'll let you keep the ring."

Katie paused at this, staring down at the opened box in her hand, which held the biggest and most gorgeous emerald ring she had ever seen in her entire life. Still... "No, Harry, and besides, this is my birthday present, remember? I was going to keep it, anyways."

"But why not?" Harry asked in a furious whisper. There had to be some way to convince her. After all, not only would this plan help Katie out with Oliver, but also it would sufficiently distract Harry enough so that he could at least function emotionally again, especially when he was at home and not travelling with the team. Indeed, it was becoming quite the challenge for him to live at the Burrow with all the wedding planning going on and still maintain his sanity. Ron and Hermione were, at the moment, the only things keeping him sane, and they would soon be leaving for Hogwarts for the start of the school year in a few days.

"Because I don't want to be married to you," Katie protested, purposely keeping her voice low in order to avoid creating a more sensationalized story for the reporters to witness.

"Who said anything about marriage? I'm only talking about an engagement," Harry murmured back, taking the hint to be quiet as the walls in this case DID in fact have ears – and quills.

"But I don't want to be engaged to you," Katie said adamantly. The truth of the matter was that if she couldn't be with Oliver, she would probably choose to be with Harry, but she knew that if they ever were to actually marry that it would be a disaster. They were friends; at times, it seemed like they were the best of friends, and she couldn't argue that the sex wasn't fantastic, but she wasn't in love with Harry and he wasn't in love with her. In addition to this, Katie wanted children in the future, and she knew that she would rather have them with a man she was in love with and not one that, truthfully, was merely a consolation prize.

"But you want to be engaged to Oliver, don't you?" Harry broke her from her thoughts with a shot at the truth.

"What does that have to do with anything Harry?" Katie said tiredly. She was confused, her nude picture was shortly to be plastered onto the front page of _The Daily Prophet,_ and in addition to this, she had just gotten the shock of her life when Harry had shoved a ring on her finger as they had been having their interview and, out of the blue, announced that they were engaged: something that Katie hadn't known herself.

"Everything," he said. "Men always want what they can't have and Oliver's no exception." He paused a moment, thinking yet again to appeal to Katie's mercenary side in order to get her to co-operate in this elaborate ruse. "I have the rest of the set at home. How about that?"

"Set?" Katie deadpanned. The more this conversation continued, the more confused she became. Indeed, her head was spinning from the overwhelming nature of the whole conversation.

Harry nodded, thinking of the emerald set he had purchased for Katie's birthday that was sitting in his dresser drawer at the Burrow. He had been planning on giving her one piece a day interspersed with lilies (her favourite flower), but Katie didn't have to know this. "There are also a bracelet, earrings, and necklace to match the ring in your hand."

Katie starred down at the ring and winced. What she was about to do was entirely unlike her and reflected badly on her mercenary side, but emeralds WERE her favourites and Harry had made an excellent point about Oliver. Judging from the looks he was now shooting her and the fact that Fleur was close to being found out for who she really was, he had feelings for her but damned if he was moving on them... "So when's the wedding?"

A wide grin spread across Harry's face. "Excellent. I knew you'd come around. I was thinking July..."

Katie was broken from her memories of the encounter the previous evening by the conversation that was still happening while she sat on Harry's lap.

"Well you still should have told us something, Harry," Hermione broke in. "I think you nearly killed Ron this morning with the shock."

"Again, I'm sorry," Harry said sheepishly. "It just sort of... happened."

"Yeah," Katie chimed in, thinking that if they were going to make this believable than she was going to have to help Harry convince his friends that there was going to be a wedding when, indeed, they had already planned the break-up. "We were in the locker room yesterday, and we got to talking as we normally do..."

Ron snorted. "Doesn't look like talking to me," he said, opening up _The Daily Prophet_ to the second page, where Katie's nearly nude body was plastered up against Harry's, and they were making out. This must have been the moment before Harry had noticed the press was in the room.

Katie shot Ron an indulgent look. "Well we WERE talking; that happened after. Anyways, before I know it, Harry's down on one knee in front of me, with this in his hand." She took this opportunity to share with the women in the room the large emerald that currently graced her finger with its presence.

"Holy shit, Harry," Ron muttered under his breath. He looked up from the ring. "You're making us all look bad."

"Isn't he?" Katie drawled. "Well, how I could I say 'no' when he handed me this..." She chuckled and shrugged. "Besides, I love him." She didn't add on that she wasn't IN love with him. Somehow Katie thought that this would defeat the purpose of the show she was putting on for his friends.

Hermione sighed. She was happy for Harry, but instinctively, she knew that something was up. A person just didn't haul out a ring and decide to get married, especially if he was Harry Potter. No, the Harry she knew wasn't nearly that impulsive and would surely have taken either her or Ron under advisement if he were making such an absolutely gigantic decision about his life. Beside all that, hadn't Ron told her that Harry had some mystery girl that he was in love with? This seemed like a rather strange move for a man who was supposedly infatuated with someone other than his girlfriend. Hermione wasn't going to argue with Harry's logic, though; if he wanted to marry Katie (a woman that Hermione knew would take care of him both physically and emotionally), then she would support him.

Beside her, Ginny was shooting Katie an incredulous look at what she had just said. Honestly, Ginny liked Katie. She just didn't think that she was the right woman for Harry. With a sigh of her own, Ginny made a show of looking at her watch and acting alarmed, her heart breaking a little bit as she watched Katie settle comfortably back against Harry's chest. "Oh, Merlin, is that the time? I need to get to practice."

Harry smirked and moved a hand to Katie's hip, tickling her slightly and making her squirm before answering Ginny's comment. "Afraid of the game tomorrow, then?"

"No," Ginny shot back assuredly. "We're gonna show you Cannons how to play Quidditch. I have nothing to be afraid of."

"We'll see about that, won't we?" Harry said playfully, shifting his hand lower down to Katie's thigh, subconsciously trying to make Ginny feel something in response to the attention he was lavishing onto his fiancée.

Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks, not seeing Harry's action but instead focusing on the potential disaster that could occur tomorrow. Indeed, this would be the first game that Ginny and Harry played against each other, and while it didn't mean much now, when the Quidditch season was young, it could mean something later, as they got closer to the finals and selections for the National Team began.

"Kids," Katie broke in playfully, sensing that this potential argument would soon get out of hand, if she didn't intervene. After all, she knew that the hand Harry currently was resting on her thigh had nothing to do with physical attraction to her and everything to do with making Ginny jealous. Judging from Ginny's barely veiled annoyance, it was working. She couldn't tell Harry about this quite yet, though; there was no reason to get his hopes up. Why, it was possible that Ginny might just not like Katie, which would make sense, considering the fact that both women were star chasers on rival teams set to play each other in 24 hours. Katie had learned early on in life that speculation only got a person so far, and that sometimes further research was needed. Katie would happily comply. "Let's not fight now, shall we? We all have practice to get to, and I, for one, am excited about showing the rest of the team my new ring." She got up off of Harry's lap and smoothed her clothing down. "Shall we go then, Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry shot Ginny a strange look, noting her aggressive behaviour, and stood. "I'll see you all later, then?" Everyone nodded, unsure of how to break the silence without it being awkward. Katie and Harry then left the house after he grabbed some more clothes and his equipment from his room, braving the hoards of reporters still camped out outside the Burrow.

Ron chose to take the plunge. "What was that all about, Ginny?" he demanded, genuinely wondering why she had lashed out so aggressively at Harry.

"Nothing Ron; just nervous about tomorrow, I guess," she said quietly, standing up from the table and clearing her throat, her good day completely ruined by the last half hour or so of conversation. "Look, I need to get to practice; can we continue this conversation later?"

"No Ginny, I..." Their mother cut him off, "Ron, let your sister go to practice and stop interrogating her. She's allowed to be in a bad mood." Molly had an inkling as to why her daughter was in such a snit and got up from the table, having collected all the letters from the owls, and went to the sink to wash her hands. "Now, what would everyone like for breakfast?"

"Thanks, Mum, but I'm late," Ginny cut in, no longer having an appetite. "I'll see everyone tonight, then?"

"Sure, Ginny," Hermione smiled. "Have a good practice."

And with that, Ginny left the kitchen to get her equipment for practice, knowing instinctively that it was going to be a rough day. After all, she had never been known to play well with a broken heart. She just hoped that tomorrow, broken heart and all, she and her team could overcome the threat that the Cannons provided to their future in this season of Quidditch. Indeed, much more than Quidditch was now riding on the outcome. Ginny was pretty sure her emotional well being was on the line, too.


	7. The Games We Play

**Chapter 7: The Games We Play**

Harry Potter hadn't been this nervous since his first Quidditch game at Hogwarts. Today's game wasn't a huge deal; it wasn't as if it were a semi-final or anything equally important to the standing of the team. No, the game was important because of the players in it. Harry had to face it; he had never before played a game with the woman to whom he was engaged, against the woman to whom he wanted to be engaged.

And so, Harry sat in the locker room with his fellow players, Katie sitting close to him and Oliver giving them their normal pep talk, and breathed a deep sigh of apprehension. _Here goes nothing._

"Are you as scared as I am?" Ron asked his wife as they sat in the stands at the Cannons' field, waiting for the game to start.

Hermione nodded. "More. This is going to rip the Burrow apart."

Ron nodded his head in agreement, deciding to change the subject before they started speculating yet again on how exactly the Burrow was going to suffer, no matter who won the game. Judging by the near argument in the kitchen the other day, this game had a lot weighing on it – more than either he or Hermione could fathom, as they would soon find out. He was broken from these thoughts as the players were announced and they flew onto the field: "Let the game begin."

Katie hadn't played such a competitive game in quite awhile; the Harpies gave the Cannons a run for their money from the very first moment the referee had released the balls. The score was tied, 240-240, leaving it to the Seekers to finish the game. Even this seemed to be a problem, as the Snitch seemed to be moving faster today, choosing to show itself for only brief periods – just long enough to attract the attention of the Seekers – only to disappear again. They had been playing for close to five hours, so far, and no end seemed to be in sight.

So Katie continued to play the game she loved most in the world, catching the Quaffle from her fellow Chasers and making for the Harpies' goal. Ginny, it appeared, had other ideas, constantly following her and blocking her from going to the goalpost. This wouldn't have been a problem, ordinarily; after all, Ginny was on the opposing team, and it was her job to do this. The problem lay in the Bludger that was coming straight for Ginny.

"Ginny, look out!" Katie yelled, her voice lost in the cheers from the crowd as she neared the goalpost. Despite the fact that she was on the other team, she didn't want to see anyone seriously injured, least of all Ginny, who, if Katie had her way, would one day be her fiancée's wife.

Ginny looked over her shoulder and, instead of moving upward to successfully avoid the Bludger and put both Katie and herself out of danger, she flew forward, only succeeding in jolting Katie as she moved out of the way of the Bludger. Katie lost her balance at this point, turning an accusatory look on Ginny. She regretted having warned her, considering how high they were in the air, as she fell off her broom and began the 50-foot descent to the ground.

Harry watched in horror from the other side of the field as his fiancée fell off her broom, knowing, even with his new state of the art Thunderbolt, that there was no way he could make it in time. The only way he could help Katie and his team now would be to end the game quickly. With newfound determination, he scanned the field for the Snitch as the crowd screamed at Katie's quick descent to the ground. Harry cringed as he heard the thump of Katie's body hitting the sand around the goalpost and, from the corner of his eye, finally spotted the Snitch.

It was strange how quickly he could catch the Snitch when something bigger was at stake. Almost anticlimactically, he zoomed forward on his broom and caught the Snitch in mid-dive. With a grim look on his face at the scene he knew he was going to find, he continued to fly to the other end of the field, where he came to rest next to the still body of his fiancée. She was surrounded by mediwitches and mediwizards , who were allowed onto the field but were unable to force play to stop when someone got injured. They looked up at Harry as he landed, the referee shouting from above them that Harry wasn't allowed off the field until the Snitch had been caught.

"Here," he spat out anxiously, showing the referee the still fluttering Snitch in his hand. Without further adieu, the ref blew his whistle and the game ended.

"Katie," he said softly. He worried as he knelt on the ground next to the woman he had been sharing a bed with off and on for the past year and took her hand.

A soft moan escaped Katie, "Harry?"

"I'm here," he replied, squeezing her hand a little bit. He was, if he were to admit it to himself, more than a little bit worried. She was conscious, but that didn't mean that she hadn't acquired internal bleeding from the fall or something equally as bad. He had been injured enough times himself to be aware of the injuries that could result from a 50-foot drop.

"Good," she groaned, trying to get up and wincing in pain as her body protested most adamantly. "What happened?"

"Shh, don't try to get up," Harry murmured, touching her torso gently to get her to lie back down. "You fell off your broom."

She chuckled softly, crying out as her laughter jostled her body the wrong way. and pain shot through her ribcage. "Well, I've never done that before. You have, though, Harry; is it supposed to hurt this much?"

Harry nodded, letting a laugh of his own escape. "Be thankful; it means you're alive, and yeah, it's supposed to."

"Especially when you break a leg, two ribs, and an arm," the mediwitch working on Katie said crisply, reaching for Katie's good arm and shoving the sleeve of her Quidditch robe up. "And you have a concussion." She swiftly (and unexpectedly, judging from the cry of shock from Katie) injected Katie with the needle that the mediwizard hovering nearby had given her, before turning her attention to Harry. "Make sure she doesn't fall asleep now, won't you, dear?"

Harry nodded in acknowledgement, shooting Katie a grin as she looked down at the offending arm that had just received the surprise injection. "Now, how shall I do that? Any input, Katie?"

Katie laughed out loud this time; the tranquilizer that the mediwitch had given her was already kicking in and causing the pain to recede a bit. "Nothing that can happen with all these people here."

The mediwitch working on her smiled. "So, it's true then, what I read in the _Daily Prophet_? You two are getting married?"

"Yeah," Katie chose to answer, chuckling even more at the lie she was about to perpetuate further, unaware that Oliver had just come over and was standing behind the mediwitch. "I'm taking on the Boy-Who-Lived… for better or for worse."

Oliver smiled sadly, catching Harry's eye, having heard this last comment and feeling his heart break a little bit.

Harry winced slightly, catching the look that Oliver clearly wore. _It was good; their plan was working._ It was painful for Harry to watch, when he knew that he routinely had the same look on his face whenever Ginny and Colin were around him. "Oliver," he said in greeting, breaking into the conversation between Katie and the mediwitch .

"Harry… Katie," he said, forcing a smile as he watched the mediwitch fuss over his best friend, whom he suddenly was regarding in a different light. It was funny what a pair of black lace knickers and an engagement to another man could do to a friendship. "What's this I hear about an accident and my star player?"

"I think I'm insulted Oliver," Harry joined in the fun, in an attempt to get them through the next few minutes guilt-free. After all, just because he had concocted this plan didn't mean that he couldn't feel bad about its implementation. "Didn't I just catch the Snitch for you?"

"Why, yes, Harry; yes, you did," Oliver grinned, shoving his jealousy deep into the crevices of his heart to examine at a later time. "Good on you, by the way. We won."

"I gathered." Harry furrowed his brow, remembering how scared he had been for Katie when he had caught the Snitch that was still fluttering vainly in his hand. "I was a little pre-occupied at the time."

"Understandably," Oliver said, stealing a look at Katie who, from the looks of it, was going to be fine. Indeed, from the loopy look on her face, it appeared that the tranquilizer had just kicked in. "You going to be okay there, Katie?"

"Um-Hmm," she murmured dreamily, her eyes closing. "I'm so tired, Harry. Can you tell me a story while I fall asleep?"

Harry smirked. Katie apparently approved of the drugs that had been given to her to ease the pain. "Darling, you're not allowed to fall asleep. You have a concussion."

"I do?" she murmured. "Good for me." She looked up, the world spinning slightly. "Well, hello, there Ronald Weasley. How are you today?"

Ron, who had just forced his way onto the field to see how his best friend and fiancée were doing, raised an amused eyebrow. Apparently there wasn't anything to worry about. "Doing all right there, you two?"

Harry nodded with a smirk on his face. "Not as good as Katie, apparently."

"No one's as good as me," Katie went on. The mediwitch who had been working on her pronounced her fit for travel to St. Mungo's and levitated her onto the stretcher. "Harry's told me. I'm absolutely the best at everything, aren't I, Harry?"

"Yes, you are, sweetheart," he murmured, leaning down and placing a kiss gently on her lips, brushing a hand accidentally over Katie's breast as he did so.

"And I'm REALLY good at that," she continued, noticing the light touch of Harry's hand and inadvertently coaxing a snicker from Ron and a blush from Harry as he straightened. "Ask Harry; he'll tell you."

"Yes, Harry," Ron smirked, following the congregation near the stretcher to the ambulance that St. Mungo's sent to every Quidditch match, this being no exception. "Tell us."

Harry scowled, making a rude gesture at Ron before realizing, for the first time since the accident, that someone was missing from the field; the Harpies had all gone into the locker rooms along with the Cannons, once they saw that Katie was going to be fine. Ginny, the other person involved in the accident that had caused Katie's fall in the first place, was nowhere to be found. "Where's Ginny, Ron? And Hermione?"

Ron shook his head at the memory. "Ginny was pretty upset about the accident and the loss of the game. It's their first loss this season," he paused, having been confused as to why his sister had pretty much bolted off the field, changed, said good-bye to her team-mates, and went home.

"Well she shouldn't be," Harry said, reassuringly, unconcerned now. Ginny's reaction was understandable; he could remember the first time he had missed the Snitch and therefore had lost the game. "It was just an accident; it could have happened to anyone. As for the loss, it's only the middle of the season. Plenty of time left."

Ron shrugged, knowing that this wouldn't completely explain his sister's reaction, but he didn't have the first clue why she would react this way. He broke from his thoughts though, as they reached the apparition point. "You should go, Mate. Katie might need you."

Harry nodded, smiling at Ron gratefully. "Thanks, Ron. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"You're not coming home tonight?" Ron furrowed his brow, confused.

Harry shook his head, unsure about the entire situation. Generally, when he went to St. Mungo's, he was the patient. This was new territory for him… "Quite frankly, I don't know. If Katie needs to stay in the hospital, then I'll be there when she wakes up. If she is allowed to go home, she'll need someone in the apartment with her."

Ron nodded in understanding. If he had been in Harry's place, he probably would have done the same thing, too. "See you tomorrow, then?"

Harry nodded, climbing into the Apparition zone with Katie, who was still babbling randomly, and was gone.

Hermione found Ginny in the living room at the Burrow, having followed her home from the stadium when she left abruptly, tears streaming from her eyes and sobs racking her body. "Ginny, are you all right?"

"What have I done?" she sobbed, leaning into her sister-in-law as she sat down on the couch with her.

"Ginny, it was an accident. Katie is going to be fine. She only has a concussion and a broken leg; the Healers can fix that," Hermione said awkwardly, unsure why Ginny was so upset.

"It's not that," Ginny sniffed. "I did it… on purpose."

Hermione was confused now. "Ginny, that Bludger was going to hit you; you had to dodge out of the way."

"But I didn't have to go in that direction; I knew that if I went that way, I would knock Katie off her broom… and I wanted to." She reached for a tissue.

"But why would you want to…" Hermione asked, but she was cut off by Ginny's next words, which, unbeknownst to Hermione, would shatter all her beliefs about her relationship with Colin and ultimately, with Harry.

Great sobs wracked Ginny's body before she was able to continue, "Because she has something I don't." Ginny looked with tearful eyes into Hermione's face, willing her sister-in-law to guess what she was about to say, so that Ginny wouldn't have to say it. Unfortunately, Hermione, ever the quick one, knew exactly what the red-head meant, her eyes widening in shock and a gasp emerging from her mouth.

"Oh, Ginny, no," Hermione said sadly, hoping that she was wrong. "Don't tell me that…."

"I'm in love with Harry." The weight of having her secret off her chest was so great that more tears sprang from her eyes. "I have been for years."

Hermione sat back, staring at Ginny in disbelief. "Are you serious? We thought you had got over him," she paused, realizing exactly how large Ginny's problem was.

"I thought I had," Ginny sobbed. "But then yesterday, when I found out that he was…engaged…I just…realised that the feelings I thought had died years ago, hadn't." Ginny hadn't been completely honest. There was no way she was going to tell Hermione that not only had she never given up on these feelings, but she had accepted Colin's proposal knowing she was still in love with Harry.

Hermione was silent for a moment. Fortunately, she wasn't able to read Ginny's thoughts. "This is a huge mess; you know that?" Hermione mused, unsure of what advice to give to her friend, who was engaged to a man who loved her more than life - but who was also in love with another man – who, coincidentally, was engaged himself.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that," Ginny laughed bitterly through her tears. It WAS a mess, one that Ginny Weasley reckoned that she was now too late to fix. Harry Potter was getting married and there was nothing she could do about that beyond moving on with her life and getting married herself.

"Well what are you going to do?" Hermione asked quietly.

Ginny shrugged, her face turning toward the ceiling. She knew that Hermione was going to hate what she had to say next: "Marry Colin."

Hermione was shocked and surprised that Ginny, ordinarily such a kind person, would choose to do something so cruel to such a nice person as Colin. "Ginny, you're in love with another man; do you really think that's fair to Colin?"

"Does it matter? I love Colin, just not as much as I love Harry. And besides that, Harry is engaged to Katie. It's not as if he's been in love with me for years the same way I have with him, and I can't expect him to suddenly become un-engaged to Katie in order to be with me." Ginny sighed, taking another tissue from the box on the coffee table and wiping her eyes, suddenly bereft of tears as she tightly reigned in her emotions. Enough damage had been done already tonight by Ginny admitting her feelings for Harry to Hermione. If this got out to others …Ginny could kiss her engagement with Colin good-bye.

Hermione didn't know how to answer Ginny's matter-of-fact revelations. Her sister-in-law was right; she couldn't just expect Harry to drop Katie in order to be with her, especially considering Harry wasn't in love with Ginny and, as far as Hermione was aware, was more than prepared to spend the rest of his life with Katie, judging by his reaction to her fall; Hermione had never seen him catch a Snitch so quickly. Ginny was facing a complicated situation.

"Ginny, I can't let you do this. There has to be another way…" Hermione tried yet again, unwilling to believe that this was the end of the discussion.

"But there isn't, now, is there?" Ginny shot back, all her tears suddenly dried up. She was angry now that Hermione had forced her think about this, especially when she was feeling so bad already. "Look, Hermione, Harry and I can't be together; it's that simple. I may love him but he loves someone else. I just have to face that and move on. With Colin…" she paused, her voice cracking slightly. "You have to promise me that you'll tell no one about this. Especially Harry. He can't know nor can anyone else. Understand?"

Hermione hesitated, not wanting to make promises to Ginny when she knew that this news might very well mean something to someone, especially Colin, who Hermione already felt sorry for. No one would want to be known as a consolation prize, and for Ginny, that was exactly what he was: a poor man's Harry Potter.

"Promise me!" Ginny said more insistently. "Don't make me have to Obliviate you, Hermione!"

"I promise," Hermione said, one hand behind her back, fingers crossed. _Surely it would be all right to tell Ron, now, wouldn't it?_

"Okay, good," Ginny said, a little unsure of herself, as she stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Where are you going?" Hermione looked confused.

Ginny shrugged, gathered her jacket, and made for the door, not bothering to say good-bye to her sister-in-law as she explained, "Colin's; we have a date."

And with that, she was gone, leaving Hermione to ponder exactly what this new piece of information could mean to the future of her family and, more importantly, the emotional well being of her sister-in-law.


	8. Lying to Ourselves

**Chapter 8: Lying to Ourselves**

Colin lay on top of his fiancée, his heart still pounding and a guilty conscious plaguing his thoughts as he reviewed the fact that he had just almost called the name of a woman that wasn't his fiancée during sex. Indeed, Colin had not been entirely truthful with himself when he said that it was Ginny who had been rather distant in the last few weeks; he felt that he had too. And this, he reflected as Ginny moved a bit and he felt his cock slip out of her, was cause for concern.

The truth of the matter was that he was in love with someone else and had been sleeping with her in secret for two months now.

He had met Laura Woodross at work two and a half months ago, Laura being a journalist from America who had recently transferred newspapers in order to be closer to her family in London. His editor, sensing that the pair of them would make a good team, had immediately re-assigned Colin to work with Laura, taking photos to accompany her stories in the _'Daily Prophet.'_ They had become fast friends and before Colin had known it, they had been pursuing a relationship, despite the fact that at the time they had both been very aware of his engagement to Ginny.

Indeed, Laura was like a drug for him; he knew he shouldn't have her, shouldn't spend hours on end in illicit liaisons that masqueraded as assignments. But he couldn't and truth be told, he really didn't want to. The fact of the matter was that Ginny was his best friend and at the time of his proposal he had genuinely wanted to marry her. But now….now, he didn't know. He still loved her, he knew that much, but he knew that deep down inside, he loved Laura more. Due to his almost verbal indiscretion just moments ago though, he didn't know if he would have to go through with the marriage after all.

"Colin," Ginny murmured as she kissed his neck gently. "That was wonderful."

Colin smiled nervously, glad that Ginny couldn't see his face right now. Apparently she hadn't noticed the fact that he had just barely stopped himself from calling out another woman's name while he had been making love to her. With a sigh, he returned the kiss and hugged her tightly to him. He didn't know how to break it to Ginny that he had deep feelings for another woman. Didn't want to really. After all, she was his best friend and, while he couldn't imagine spending the rest of his life with anyone but Laura at this point, his best friend was a close second. Besides all that, he didn't relish dumping a woman with six older brothers…

But he couldn't seem to stop the niggling voice in his head that told him that something was distinctly wrong when the thought of marrying a woman that he had proposed to just two months before didn't send the same shivers of happiness through his body. He wasn't willing to admit to himself that perhaps the best thing for both of them was to call the wedding off. Maybe this was the best thing for both of them. Now though, as he began to feel Ginny start to drift off next to him, he put these thoughts out of mind, and out of sight. He loved her…sort of, and at the moment that was all that mattered.

"You know Harry, you didn't have to stay in the hospital with me," Katie murmured as she took a bite of the green Jell-O that she had been served as a bedtime snack. She grimaced as she took a bite. She was hungry but she didn't qualify what was in the bowl in her hand as actual food. With a sigh, she leaned forward and placed the almost full bowl on the table next to her bed.

Harry smirked as he noticed Katie's reaction to the vile green concoction she had attempted to eat. With a sigh of his own, he reached into his jacket pocket and got out the Milky Way bar that he had bought when he had gone home for a change of clothes earlier.

Katie cast him a grateful look as she took the bar of chocolate he was offering her, "You are a God, you know that right?"

Harry shrugged, leaning back in his chair, "I do what I can." Suddenly remembering what else he had brought back from his impromptu shopping trip, he stood and went to the table beside the door, picking up the bundle of lilies he had sat there when he had come into the room 5 minutes ago. "I got these for you too."

Katie put down the chocolate bar on the table next to the Jell-o and took the flowers, "Oh Harry, you shouldn't have."

"Yes, I should have. How many times have you either a) visited me in this very hospital or b) brought me anything here? Flowers are the least I can do," he said, sitting back down again. "And the fact that I've decided to stay here in the hospital until someone either kicks me out or you get well is beside the point. We wouldn't want the gossip mongers to get wind that Harry Potter isn't standing by his fiancée in her time of need, now would we?" He finished with another smirk, leaning forward to place a kiss on Katie's lips. He pulled back slightly, now dropping smaller kisses onto Katie's neck as he continued to talk, "Besides, who was it that was with me the last time I landed myself in here?"

Katie smiled, "Thank you Harry," she said softly. She pulled back, trying to tamp down the feelings of arousal that Harry was drawing from her. Now was neither the time nor the place. Desperate for a distraction, she looked down at her flowers. "These are my favourites, you know," she gulped nervously.

"Yes I know that," Harry said sitting back in his chair again, smirking at how flustered he had made his fiancée. He looked down, twiddling his fingers against the chair arm impatiently, a frown replacing the smirk that had so recently been gracing his features. He had something to tell Katie and he wasn't sure how well she was going to like it.

Katie's brow furrowed, forgetting the feelings of arousal she was feeling as concern for her fiancée rose to the forefront of her mind, "Harry, are you alright?" she asked, placing the flowers into the vase by the bed and taking one of Harry's hands.

"Hmmm?" Harry looked up, deciding to just go for it. "Yes, I'm fine. It's just that you've got an interview that Oliver set up for you in five minutes and I'm trying to work up the nerve to tell you," he shot her a boyish look, relief lighting his face up. "Guess I don't have to worry about that now, do I?"

"Harry!" Katie cried angrily, dropping Harry's hand, "How could you let him do that?"

"Well it's in our contracts Katie," Harry sighed, his right hand-now free- coming up to rub his temple.

"But…" Katie stuttered. "I've only been here a few hours. How does he know that I've recovered enough to even give interviews?"

"He asked your doctor," Harry said succinctly, "And besides, you know as well as I do that this is part of the job. The public wants to know and you are as aware as I am that the papers will just make it up anyways if they don't get their interview. You might as well have a say in how the story's told."

Katie looked down at her hands, pouting. She hated when Harry was right.

"And quite frankly I think you should be grateful he didn't shove one of these onto you in the ambulance the way he did to me," Harry cracked a joke, remembering the week from hell he had experienced near the beginning of the Quidditch season. "I was on the same painkillers you were on, didn't know what I was saying, and looked like shit."

Katie tried to stifle a laugh. The entire wizarding world had thought that their 'Sexiest Man Alive' was dying and had acted accordingly on this, flooding his hospital room with flowers, gifts, and the odd woman, sent specifically to satisfy the Boy-Who-Lived before he joined his family in the, and he quoted, 'great beyond.'

Needless to say, Harry hadn't been amused.

"Who's doing the interview then?" Katie said, suitably chastised and now extremely grateful that Oliver had chosen to do this tonight, after she had had the bones in her leg, ribs and arm healed, and her concussion dealt with. Indeed, right now Katie Bell, Star Chaser for the Chudley Cannons was simply dealing with exhaustion and the aftermath of the potions that had been put to use on her body.

"Laura Woodross from the _'Daily Prophet.' _You know, that American woman who works with Colin?"

Katie nodded, "Good, I like her work. Is Colin coming with her tonight? I'm not sure I'm up to pictures."

Harry shook his head, "No, he's on a date with Ginny tonight," he grimaced, trying not to think to hard about this and to move on to more relevant topics. "And I like Laura's work too," Harry agreed, "She's certainly better than Rita Skeeter, now isn't she?"

"Well I would like to think so," a tall lanky blonde with an American accent who Harry assumed was Laura, smiled from the doorway.

Harry's suspicions were confirmed though when she came forward, hand extended, "Laura Woodross, _Daily Prophet_. Are you ready for your interview, or is this a bad time?"

Katie smiled, "No, come on in. This is a great time actually."

And with that, Harry watched as his fiancée and Laura got on with the interview, chatting as if they were old friends. Harry admired this in a reporter. Indeed, being able to put one's interviewee at ease was something that he felt was lacking from the previous staff at the '_Daily Prophet.' _The fact that she never wrote anything but the truth about him-good and bad-was also a change after the years of being the scapegoat for the newspaper that Laura currently worked at.

Something about her was familiar though, something that he couldn't quite place. Laura tossed her hair, laughing at something that Katie had said and that was when Harry noticed it-the strangely familiar navy sweater that Laura was currently wearing that he swore he remembered Ginny giving Colin last Christmas. But it couldn't be, could it? There had to be some explanation. Surely she had to have bought it at the same store Ginny had. It had nothing to do with the fact that she worked in close proximity with Colin. But he had to know…

"Laura," Harry stopped her, "Sorry to interrupt, but where did you get that sweater? My friend Hermione has a birthday coming up and I'd like to get her one." This fact was true; Hermione DID have a birthday coming up, but it was Harry's overly suspicious and jealous mind that was forcing him to ask to question in the first place.

Laura shot him a smile, "Well I'd love to tell you that Harry, but I don't know. It was my boyfriend's, hence the large factor. He lent it to me on our last date and I forgot to give it back to him. Silly, I know." She laughed self-deprecatingly at this point, pulling at the sweater that was indeed large on her, clearly a man's size

Warning bells went off in Harry's head. He had to be wrong, this could not be the same sweater. Instinctively, his eyes moved to the bottom left corner or the sweater, searching for the monogrammed letters that Ginny had sewn in for Colin. His anger rose as he found them.

"A boyfriend you say?" He asked after a moment, trying to reign his anger in. "Anyone I know?"

"Yeah, I've been seeing him for two months now and no, you probably don't know him," Laura said impatiently, and a bit nervously if Harry didn't miss his guess. Her hand went down to cover the initials on the sweater. With shaking hands, she said apologetically, "I'm sorry Harry, but I really need to be getting back to this interview, I promised my editor I'd have this story for the paper tomorrow and I need to get this done if I want to do that. I can ask him where he got it if you want."

"Yeah, sure," Harry said curtly, silently telling himself that he needed more evidence before he jumped to any conclusions.

"Alright then," Laura murmured, looking down at her notes in a flustered manner. Harry noticed that her hands were still shaking slightly. But then she went back to the interview and all was well again, at least for the moment.

Katie shot him an annoyed look that he had interrupted for such a trivial thing but soon went back to the good-natured conversation that she had been having with Laura.

Harry stood, needing to talk to someone objective about all this, namely Hermione, and gathered his coat, "I'll be back in awhile, okay?"

Katie nodded, not even breaking her sentence.

With that, Harry left, praying for Colin's sake that his theory was wrong, that Colin wasn't cheating on Ginny. If he was…well, Merlin help him when Harry and Ginny's brothers got a hold of him.


	9. Interrupted Confessions

**Chapter 9-Interrupted Confessions **

"Ron, I have something I need to tell you," Hermione said awkwardly as she sat on the couch in her living room watching her husband as he went through the latest information on the case he was working on.

Ron turned a pointed look on her, saying jokingly, "We're not having twins and you haven't said anything, are you?"

Hermione scoffed. She would have told him about something that important, "No, nothing like that. It's just…" she paused, knowing that she had promised Ginny that she wouldn't say anything to anyone about her feelings for Harry but also knowing that Ron wasn't anyone. He was her husband and by wizarding law, now an extension of herself. Therefore it wouldn't really be telling anyone so much as informing herself of the secret she had learned that afternoon.

"Just what?" Ron sat his quill down and removed the glasses that he now wore for reading, as all the males in his family did, especially those that worked in the Ministry. By the tone of Hermione's voice, he sensed that something was wrong and therefore this would probably require his full attention. The reports he had been going over could wait.

Hermione bit her lip, wondering if she should divulge Ginny's secret to Ron. He was her husband yes, but Ginny was one of her best friends. She couldn't ignore the fact that said friend was about to make one of the worst mistakes of her lives. Hermione as her friend couldn't let this happen and it was for this reason that she continued with the divulging of the biggest secret in Ginny's life. "It's about Ginny."

"What about Ginny?" Ron said as he stood and moved from his desk to the couch where his wife was currently lounging to sit down next to her.

Hermione sighed heavily, not believing that she was betraying Ginny's trust the way she was about to, "Well it's like this, she……"

Hermione was interrupted from what she was about to say by the rapid knocking on the door to their apartment.

Ron furrowed his brow, standing to answer the door. "Who could that be at this hour?"

Hermione blew air through her lips in frustration. This was just bad timing. Just when she had gotten up the courage to tell Ron that his sister still harboured amorous feelings for Harry, there was…….Harry at the door. Her thoughts were abruptly stopped as she watched Harry Potter step through the doorway into her home.

It wasn't that Hermione wasn't expecting company today that made Harry's appearance so inopportune. But it did have its downsides. After all, Harry was not aware of the very deep feelings that Ginny had for him and she knew how her friend would feel like if that secret got out and Harry's engagement somehow suffered. And although she was fairly certain that Harry's engagement was a sham, a ruse devised to perhaps lure his mystery girl out of the emotional hole she was in to hopefully accept all of Harry's love, she still didn't feel like being the one to put his engagement in jeopardy. Harry should be allowed to make that decision himself.

She had to admit that she WAS a bit shocked to see him tonight though. After all, Harry hadn't come to the flat since they had moved back in a few days ago and even last year he rarely came to visit them. Hermione and Ron were at the Burrow so much that it hadn't seemed necessary. But now, as she watched a grim-faced Harry enter her flat, Hermione could see why he had chosen to visit her today.

Harry looked like he had the worst secret in the world on his shoulders and Hermione suspected that her hypothesis was true.

"What are you doing here Harry?" she asked, setting her book down on the coffee table in front of her and motioning for Ron to sit down next to her on the couch, Harry taking it upon himself to make himself comfortable and quickly sitting down in the overstuffed chair by the fire, facing the couch.

"I needed someone to talk to and you were the first person that came to mind," Harry sat down, meeting Hermione's eyes desperately.

"What am I then Harry?" Ron joked in mock-indignation, although he couldn't help but feel a little hurt that his best friend thought of Hermione to talk to before him.

"It's about Ginny Ron," Harry said roughly, running a hand through his hair. "And I'm pretty sure you're going to want to kill Colin when I get done telling you what I have to say. For that reason, I decided to come to Hermione first. No other reason."

"What's wrong?" Hermione sat up, brow furrowing. Whatever Harry wanted to talk about, it appeared to be bad.

Harry ran a hair through his hair again, standing up and beginning to pace. On the way to Hogwarts it had seemed perfectly clear that he had to tell someone-anyone-about the situation between Ginny and her wayward fiancée. Now though, as he sat in front of Hermione and a dumb-founded Ron (who was only keeping from demanding what Harry was talking about because his wife was shooting death glares at him whenever he opened his mouth…) wondering how to formulate the upcoming conversation. Truth be told, he didn't know if telling his two best friends was such a good thing. After all, if he told them about what he had learned they could-and probably would-find out about the feelings that Harry harboured for Ron's sister. Maybe it was time for him to divulge his secret. This was Hermione and Ron after all, she was good with secrets and wouldn't hold it against him that he had strong feelings for an engaged woman and Ron, well Ron had always made it clear back at Hogwarts that if Harry ended up being his brother-in-law, that he wouldn't have a problem with that. "I think," he said after a moment more of thought, "That Colin is having an affair."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Colin? Ginny's Colin? Man who's marrying the girl with six older brothers in a few months Colin?" Ron simply started to turn red, anger at the mere implication that his only sister's fiancée might be having an affair colouring his face.

Harry nodded, eyes closing as if the thought pained him, "Yes."

Hermione looked at him incredulously and shook her head, "Are you sure Harry? What kind of evidence do you have?"

"His partner at work-you know Laura Woodross?" At Hermione's nod, Harry continued. "Well, she was interviewing Katie about the game today and I was sitting there, watching and making sure she didn't ask too many intrusive questions. Things were going well, but that's when I noticed it."

"Noticed what Harry?" Ron demanded, impatient to here the rest of this so he could find Colin and beat him up. Indeed, he and his brothers had never liked Colin. He wasn't good enough in their opinion for their only sister. Now, from what Harry was telling him, they might have an excuse to satisfy the urge to annihilate the little bastard.

"She was wearing the sweater that Ginny made Colin last Christmas," Harry finished, looking Ron straight in the eye and exchanging a look that told the redhead that should he and his brothers decide to kill Colin that Harry would be right there to help them.

Hermione simply stared at Harry for a moment. Quite frankly he was reminding her of Ron right now. Indeed, Ron and his five older brothers had had issues accepting Colin at first and had turned to wild conversations about his sordid character in order to try to convince Ginny that Colin was not for her. In the end though, Ginny had seen through this suspicious line of questioning that they tended to use towards any of her boyfriends and ignored all of them from that moment onward. Harry had spent too much time with the Weasley men apparently because he was starting to sound like one of them.

"I know it sounds crazy," Harry, who could read Hermione like a book, broke into her thoughts, having torn his gaze from Ron's to take in Hermione's incredulous look.

"Yes, Harry, it does sound crazy…." Hermione looked over to her husband, trying to gauge his reaction. He looked like he believed this too.

"But she said it was from her boyfriend," Harry finished quickly, unwilling to let his story be discredited.

Hermione shook her head in disbelief, "Harry, just because her boyfriend lent her a similar sweater doesn't mean that…"

Harry, impatient with the unbelieving attitude Hermione was taking towards his claim, came forward now with the words that would change her mind, "It had his initials in the bottom left corner."

OK. Hermione was getting suspicious too now. Perhaps Harry wasn't simply being paranoid.

Harry continued, now getting angrier. Hermione watched as his pacing got worse, "It had his initials _in the same corner that Ginny puts all her monograms _and Laura told me, she _told_ me that it was from her boyfriend."

Hermione was beginning to get confused. Harry cared for Ginny, yes, but generally wasn't that observant; for him to notice such an insignificant detail as a familiar sweater on an unfamiliar female-albeit one with a direct connection to someone in the Weasley's life-was altogether confusing. Something else was going on and, judging by what Ginny had told her this afternoon after the game, she was willing to listen to her instincts about the real reason why Harry was noticing things like this and perhaps jumping to conclusions. Indeed, Hermione had suspected for years that Harry had feelings for Ginny but had never said anything, instead choosing to wait for Harry to say something to her about it. She had had enough of it though. After all, Ginny had been in love with him for years and if Harry was right about Colin cheating on her and he had feelings for Ginny…Hermione could feel the Gods smiling down on her. If everything went according to her impromptu plan (the hypothesized one that she had just come up with a moment ago in her head) then she was about to become Molly Weasley's favourite daughter-in-law. She frowned though, her bladder cutting into her happy thoughts to remind her that yes, she was 4 days overdue and yes, this meant that she now had to pee again. With a sigh, she got up and walked toward the bathroom, trying to ignore the sharp pain in her back that had been plaguing her all morning whenever she tried to move.

"Harry," Ron broke into Harry's tirade, watching as his wife got up to go to the bathroom for the 4th time that hour. "Where is Colin right now?"

"Don't know," Harry spat out, his eyes wild, "But if this is true…."

"Then we seriously injure him and make it look like an accident," Ron finished for him, leaning back against the couch, "It shouldn't be too hard. We'll just get my brothers and deal with the problem. And Ginny's a big girl. I'm sure after we beat him up she'll realize the error of her ways and dump the bastard." He paused, running this option through his head and envisioning the possible outcomes of that. Ginny would hate them forever. But she'd be happier after they did it. Even if she DID hate them forever, at least she wouldn't need to live with a man who was cheating on her with his partner from work….he cleared his throat, deciding that a change in subject was just what they needed. "So how's the mystery girl this week?"

Harry turned a confused look to Ron, "What? I thought we were talking about….never mind then." He shook his head, deciding to go with the flow. "She's fine."

"Does Katie know?" Ron asked, determined to receive some solid answers about Harry's mystery girl this time. The fact that he had even answered the first question, acknowledging that there WAS a mystery girl was a step in the right direction.

Harry nodded his head affirmatively, "Yeah, she knows."

"And she's still marrying you!" It was Ron's turn to turn an incredulous look to Harry.

Harry shrugged, Colin's probable infidelity slipping to the back of his mind for the moment as he thought of Katie's problems with Oliver. He and his 'fiancé' hadn't as of yet set a date so the door was still open for Oliver, although it didn't look like he was going to use it anytime soon. Trying to explain this situation to Ron was going to be problematic though….. "Well," he started, trying to word this correctly. "Katie's kind of in the same situation herself."

Ron's jaw dropped. He had suspected that Harry's engagement had been created for all the wrong reasons but he had only thought that they were Harry's wrong reasons. He hadn't realized that it was a two way street in this case, "Are you serious? Who?"

Harry bit his lip, looking down at his hands, "That's for her to tell, not me. Though it's not working out, he hasn't shown any interest in her whatsoever. The same is true for me."

"Who is she?" Ron demanded impatiently, watching as Harry sat down in the overstuffed armchair again. "I've known for months that there's been a mystery girl Harry but not once have you even attempted to share who she was with us," he turned a pointed look on his best friend at this point, "Friends tell and you KNOW that if I had a mystery girl I would tell you."

"If you had a mystery girl both Hermione and I would team together to kill you," Harry shook his head negatively, unwilling to share this particular piece of information with his best friend, but suddenly stopped at the hurt look that had appeared on Ron's face at the way Harry had formed this last retort. Apparently he didn't think that he was going to say anything about the women that, if given the chance, Harry would gladly give up everything he had for. Ron was right, friends DID tell, but Harry was still unsure about how he was going to react. It WAS his sister after all. Here went nothing though…..

Ron was beginning to think that Harry was never going to tell him about the women he was in love with when suddenly, Harry broke the silence that had fallen over the room.

"You're right," Harry said simply, chuckling bitterly, "And really, who're you going to tell? It's not like I can do anything about it now…." He turned a pointed look at Ron. "But I don't think you're going to like it."

"Sure I will," Ron smirked. "You're in love with her right? She's got to be something special then."

"And she is," a smile graced Harry's face now, serene and obviously in love. "You know her actually, she's…."

"Ron!" Suddenly Hermione's alarmed voice cut into his thoughts, "I think my water just broke!"

"Fuck," was the only response out of Ron's mouth as he stood quickly and rushed to the bathroom.

Harry was left sitting alone, waiting to help his best friends to the hospital wing. He smiled bitterly. At least his secret was still safe.

He didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.


	10. Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

**Chapter 10-Letting the Cat Out of the Bag**

Harry Potter waited in the hallway with the rest of the Weasley family trying desperately to keep his temper from boiling over. Indeed, not only had Colin shown up with Ginny, but Katie had somehow finagled her way out of her hospital bed and come to Hogwarts for the birth of Ron and Hermione's first child. Furthermore, as Oliver had explained as he brought Katie into the school, she would have snuck out on her own if he hadn't insisted on accompanying her to Hogwarts. She had ended up being signed over to his custody in lieu of Harry, as St. Mungos had insisted that she wasn't ready to be up and around yet. In the end, she had been released for a 12 hour period, after which time she was expected back at St. Mungos to finish her treatment. Now, she was lying on Harry's lap, fast asleep as they waited for Madam Pomfrey or Ron to come out and tell them whether it was a girl or a boy. Said child appeared to be taking their sweet time however, as Madam Pomfrey had told them all cheerfully just 15 minutes ago. Harry was forced from his angry musings by the sound of Ginny questioning Oliver on the sanity of Katie being out of bed and at Hogwarts.

"Look Ginny, she wanted to come and there was nothing I could do to stop her," Oliver sighed, turning away from his conversation with Fred and George about the Cannons chances of winning the World Cup this year to answer Ginny's intrusive question. He turned to Harry, "Back me up here man, she's your fiancée."

"But she really shouldn't be out of bed. Look at her," Ginny made a crude gesture to Katie's form, currently sprawled out, head on her fiancée's lap on the couch that Harry had transfigured for her out of a match.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Ginny, she'll be fine."

"But Harry, didn't she have a concussion? Should she be sleeping right now?" Ginny shook her head, marvelling at the stupidity of the men in front of her. She smiled indulgently, "Just an opinion Harry, but I really don't think she should be here."

Harry paused at this, anger at the patronizing tone that Ginny had just taken with him at the same time that the reason behind her argument rose in his mind. She had a point about the concussion and he really hadn't thought of the fact that she shouldn't be sleeping when she had passed out on his lap 2 hours ago. His now worried thoughts were broken as Oliver answered for him.

"The doctors gave her medication to allow her to sleep before we left the hospital. It's lasts for 12 hours and then we have to make sure that she stays up for another 12," Oliver said in a tired voice. "Harry's right, she'll be fine and the sleep will do her good."

The truth of the matter was that he hadn't believed that she should be going to Hogwarts himself but Katie had insisted. The medication that the doctors had given her had been an afterthought but it appeared that it had been a good one considering that she had been passed out on Harry's lap for the last two of the three hours she had been here.

"I can't believe how irresponsible you're being about all of this! Medication or no, she was seriously injured today and all you two can say is that 'she'll be fine'….." Ginny said, tacking the last part of her bid to have Katie go back to St. Mungo's on with a purposely bad imitation of the men who were currently allowing Katie to sleep with a concussion.

"Ginny, would you just let it go," Harry muttered, not intending for Ginny to hear this but having had enough of her rude behaviour since she and Colin had entered the waiting area an hour ago. He shook her head, not even noticing that she was now shooting murderous looks his way. "You're the one who knocked her off her broom anyways."

"Excuse me!" Ginny's concern quickly transformed itself into furious anger. She looked at Harry, not believing what she had just heard. As if he had just said that.

Harry rolled his eyes. She surely can't have been thinking that she was innocent in all of this? Indeed, if she was going to have an opinion about the apparently wrong way that he and Oliver were going about dealing with Katie's health than she should verbally acknowledge the fact that she was the one responsible for putting her in the state she was in at the point.

At this point, whatever he had to say to Ginny he believed was justified. She had been pissing him off since she had arrived with her voice of concern. "Just an opinion Ginny," he said finally, throwing her own patronizing words back in her face after a moment during which he tried-and failed- to clamp down his anger yet again. "But why should you care now about Katie's health when you didn't even care enough when you caused the accident to stick around and see how she was?"

The room that had previously been buzzing with gentle conversation suddenly went silent. Indeed, everyone knew how angry Ginny could get and Harry….well, Harry had had a rough day what with Katie's accident and when Harry had rough days, it was good to stay low and keep moving. Not a good combination.

It was Colin who jumped in at this point though, and later, Molly Weasley would recount to Ron and Hermione that this was the point at which everything had unravelled. And she did mean _everything._ "Apologize for that Harry," he said in a no-nonsense voice. Seeing as Harry was taller and broader than he though, this held little weight.

Harry simply rolled his eyes. He was too angry at both Ginny and Colin now to care about treating Ginny with the respect he generally felt she deserved. The fact of the matter was that Katie had become his very good friend over the time that they had been on the Cannons together, and this feeling had only deepened when they had started to sleep together. As for Colin, well he knew for a fact that he was cheating on Ginny and that certainly made it alright for anger in his book. Ginny, after all, was the sister of his best friend and the women he was in love with although nobody but he and Katie were privy to this fact right now. Mores the pity, Harry snorted as he took in the glare that Colin was currently shooting his way. If the family knew how he felt about Ginny that they would understand what he had to do in the next few days….

"Apologize now Harry," Colin demanded again, standing and walking over to the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry smirked un-apologetically. This was his chance to see if his theory was correct that Colin was cheating and Harry Potter had never missed a chance to solve a mystery. Indeed, if he recalled correctly, that's what had gotten him in such trouble in Hogwarts. "I will when you do," he said finally, softly. Inwardly, he started to ponder whether or not he was going to have to formally 'out' Colin's affair to the entire family tonight. He certainly hoped not. A birth was neither the time nor the place for that sort of accusation. He glared right back at Colin, trying to purvey in one unyielding gaze exactly what he knew was going on between he and Laura

Colin simply gave him a defiant look, suddenly realizing that somehow, Harry knew. He knew everything, and this was very dangerous. After all, even though he was going to be breaking the engagement with Ginny sometime in the next few weeks, he hadn't wanted to do it in front of her family for health reasons, namely his own.

"Guys," Ginny stood up, walking to stand between her fiancée and the still sitting Harry. "Stop it. Colin, I'm not offended," she said softly, shooting a look at Katie, who was currently watching the argument with tired eyes. Harry was right, and so was Oliver. Katie would be fine and at this point in time, she was willing to sit quietly in her humiliation as she contemplated yet again how she was the one who had put Katie in this condition in the first place. It had been an accident though, and she had to keep reminding herself of that. Why, if she hadn't have moved when she did, it would have been her that would have received the blunt of that bludger. "Besides, we have to look at the truth of the matter. I did it, and I have to own up to the consequences."

These last words out of Ginny's mouth made Harry laugh humourlessly. To hell with the timing. What had just come out of Ginny's mouth made him ill. She was inwardly rationalizing what she had done, he could tell by her tone. "Yeah Colin, let's all own up to the consequences."

Katie, who had woken up soon into the argument, sat up holding her sides as her ribs protested the movement. Oh no. He wasn't dong what she thought he was doing, was he? "Harry, don't do this."

Harry ignored her though, continuing. "You want to tell them Colin, or should I?"

_Fuck._ Katie closed her eyes and buried her head in her hands, the headache that had been forming since she had been temporarily released from the hospital gaining strength as she thought of the chaos that was about to be unleashed upon the room they were all sitting in. The Weasley's were going to kill Colin, and then they were all going to have to watch as Ginny killed Harry for breaking up her relationship with her fiancée. Katie watched as Ginny opened her mouth, probably to deny that Colin was doing anything out of the ordinary. After all, they had known each other since Hogwarts. Ginny, Katie knew, thought she knew her fiancée. How wrong she was.

"Harry stop," Ginny tried to cut in yet again, afraid that the man who she had loved seemingly since birth would goad her fiancée into doing something that she was afraid would change the entire face of their relationship. Indeed, she had a sneaking suspicion that the feeling of being withheld from information that she had gotten off of Colin after they had made love that night had something to do with what Harry was talking about and she quite frankly didn't want to know, was too afraid to.

"Alright then," Harry drawled snidely, seemingly channelling Malfoy for a moment, "Since it appears that Colin isn't going to say anything, let me be the first. He's having an affair Ginny."

Katie groaned as the secret that Harry had told her about quietly upon her arrival at Hogwarts (of which he hadn't been terribly happy about, firmly believing that she belonged in bed but willing to put it past him for a few hours if she promised to go back to it before the night was through) was told to the shock of the entire room, and the anger of all the males.

"Harry, what are you talking about?" Ginny laughed nervously as she took in the confused but angry looks that were appearing on the faces of her 5 brothers. Ron wasn't here right now for obvious reasons but she knew that had he been that he would be the most furious of them all. Even if it wasn't true, Ginny knew that her brothers-all 6 of them-had been just chomping at the bit for an excuse to kill-both literally and figuratively-her fiancée.

She looked around the room at the family who was still sitting down observing the argument rather quietly. An embarrassed blush rose on her face as she thought about the situation she was currently in. How disgustingly ironic would it be if Harry was right? Just as she had made her decision about marrying Colin…

"Colin is not," she laughed it off, "He wouldn't do that to me because he knows I'd kill him if he did. We're getting married and," she smiled pointedly at Harry, "He loves me." Her eyes went up to meet her fiancées and the nervous giggles that had been emerging from her mouth suddenly ceased at the stony-faced look that was currently gracing his facade. Her worst nightmare had apparently just come true.

Her family who had become silent as the arguing had begun, froze seemingly in their silence, the last implication pausing any small action in the room.

"Actually Ginny…" Colin said finally, bringing a hand up to his head to run through his hair. It would do him little good to deny it now, especially seeing as her brothers looked like they were going to hurt him terribly regardless of the results of any investigation they might embark upon.

"No," Ginny backed away from Colin, refusing to let the hand he had suddenly brought out to touch her with reach her. How dare he? She was giving up so much for him, her dreams, any hope she had ever had about getting together with Harry. "No you're not. WE'RE GETTING MARRIED. Why would you do something like unless you….unless you didn't want to…didn't WANT me or something…." She paused at this, shaking with anger, the room around her still. This wasn't happening, couldn't be because if it was, then that meant that she had been wasting her time for years, years that she could have spent getting over her fears of rejection and just telling Harry how she felt. She felt like a fool. "Who is she?"

Colin sighed before saying, simply, "Laura."

"LAURA!" Ginny suddenly burst out in anger. She WAS a fool. She had known that her fiancée and his partner were close but she, in her ignorance, had completely ignored the fact that they had fallen in love-or lust, she couldn't be certain- right under her nose, "HOW LONG NOW COLIN? I bet you were sleeping with her since the first day you met her. Did you…." She gasped, suddenly realizing something. "Did you propose to me even though you had feelings for her?" All thoughts that she had accepted under the same circumstances made themselves scarce at that moment.

"Ginny let me explain," Colin protested, reaching for her again and in his ignoring of her question, confirming her hypothesis of the situation. But Ginny wouldn't let him, taking the hand that had the engagement ring on it and fumbling for the ring. She took it off sullenly, pursing her lips as she looked at it for a moment before handing it back to him. It was over and now she could conclusively say she had no one. Harry was getting married and Colin had cheated on her. She had never felt so awful in her life.

"Here you go Mr. Creevy," she said in a quiet voice, all the while trying to hold back tears. Her mother sent her a sympathetic gaze. "Better go give this to Laura," she sniffed, one tear making its way down her cheek, anger at Harry now suddenly flaring up inside her. Yes he was angry at her for what she had done to Katie but that didn't mean that he had had to announce this devastating announcement here at Hogwarts, forcing her to create this scene in front of her family. "Merlin knows I don't need it anymore."

Colin tried once more, his throat tight with unshed tears. He couldn't believe that this was happening. "Ginny, I'm sorry."

"We're done here Colin," Ginny turned her back on him. "You should probably go."

He nodded. It was over, "Alright," he said, nearly soundlessly before walking out the doors to the waiting room.

Ginny paused only a moment, watching Colin leave, before going off again, her tears apparently no barrier to her anger that now seemed to ooze from her in wild streams of fury, "Why the fuck did you do that Harry?"

Harry simply looked up at Ginny and rose an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean Ginevra?" he said icily.

Ginny shook her head, not believing the attitude that Harry was now sporting. She was interrupted from anything else she might say though as he continued.

"I thought I was doing you a favour," he spat out, standing up and beginning to pace. Katie simply watched, sadly. "I thought you'd appreciate the fact that you now knew that your fiancée was being unfaithful to you if only to have the satisfaction of breaking up with him before he did it to you again with another woman." He stopped in front of her, looking her in the eye as he got closer to her. "I thought you'd value the fact that you didn't need to spend the rest of your life with a man who only treated you as second prize in a contest."

"And why would you care about that?" Ginny said snidely, so low that the rest of the room had to strain to hear it.

Harry, unable to stop himself, now told her the words that he swore he'd never say to the woman in front of him, "Because I love you Ginny, HAVE loved you since my 6th year at Hogwarts and I will be damned," his voice started to rise at this point, "If a second rate cheater is going to have the satisfaction of telling you that everyday when he doesn't, not really. He can't."

The room's collective jaw dropped at this last statement, Katie being the only one to keep her jaw in place as she dropped her head into her hands a second time and moaned. The jig was up.

Oliver, noticing this, turned to Katie. Indeed, from her reaction, he was expecting her to be in tears. Instead, he found that she was laughing hysterically.

Ginny nodded, not knowing what to say to this. She had waited for this moment for her entire life but suddenly, it didn't seem so important. He was still engaged after all and he HAD just broken up her own engagement for what she knew now to be purely selfish reasons. He couldn't love her that much if doing that came so easily to him. There was only one thing left for her to do then.

Harry didn't even see it coming, instead, taking the full brunt of the punch that Ginny threw his way.

"Fuck you Harry," she swore angrily, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. She turned to the door that she had just watched Colin walk out of and walked towards it, turning back to her family as she got to the door. "Tell Ron and Hermione congratulations for me. I have to….I have to go….think." And with that, she left, leaving the room to the resounding lingerings of Harry's impromptu confession.

"Well, that was…interesting…." Bill mused, not believing what he had just witnessed in this very room.

Harry snorted and then winced as the pain from his face hit him. Ginny had one hell of a punch then again, he knew that. He and Ron had been the ones to teach her after all.

"Harry," Katie spoke up, her voice wavering as she tried to hold back the great gusts of relieved laughter that threatened to spill out of her. The secret was out finally and, although she had to admit that she was entirely unsure where they were going to go from here, she was relieved to finally be living in reality again.

"Yeah Katie," Harry said wearily, not turning to meet her eyes for free that the sadness that he was currently feeling would show. Suddenly, he felt arms go around him. Apparently he didn't have to look at her for her to know.

"Hey, it's alright," she murmured, noticing that he wouldn't-or couldn't-look her in the eye, "It's going to be alright."

From behind her, Oliver snorted in disbelief, "Excuse me? Your fiancée just told everyone that he's in love with another woman and you're the one comforting him! I don't believe this."

Katie sighed, lifting her head off of Harry's chest and looking at Oliver, "You don't understand Oliver."

"Oh but I think I do," Oliver said wryly, coming over to stand next to the still embracing couple. "So who's the other guy?"

Katie froze, in shock that Oliver had made a guess as to she and Harry's situation that was so very accurate, "Other guy?"

"Yeah Katie," Fred, who had been silent along with the rest of his family for the last few minutes, suddenly spoke up, "The other guy. If Harry here was in love with Ginny and you knew that, obviously you must have had feelings for someone else too."

Katie was unaware that their plan was so transparent.

She was saved from the embarrassment of either making up a guy or confessing to Oliver, by the door to the hospital wing opening to reveal a tired, but happy Ron.

"Hey everybody," he grinned broadly.

"Ron?" Molly stood up anxiously, walking over to her son and taking his hand. Ron winced.

"Oi Mum, careful with that, Hermione did a number on it," he hissed, taking it back and smiling. "You'll be pleased to know that she's doing well, although I can't say the same about my hand," he paused, taking a breath. "It's a girl."

"Oh a girl!" Molly gushed, turning to her husband, who had stood up and walked to where his wife and son were talking.

"Congratulations son," Arthur stepped forward, embracing Ron.

Ron returned the hug, furrowing his brow as he took in who was in the room-and who was not. "Where's Ginny?"

The family exchanged worried looks, no one knowing how to describe what had happened in the past half hour in this very room.

"She wasn't feeling well Ron and she didn't want to give whatever she had to the baby," Molly said after an awkward silence. The room breathed a sigh of relief at this seemingly plausible answer.

Ron nodded his head, knowing that this was a lie but too happy with his lot in life at the moment to care, "Would you all like to meet her then?"

The faces of his family lit up as they all followed him into the hospital wing, excitedly whispering about the new addition to the family. No one noticed when Harry, Katie, and Oliver, pale-faced, didn't follow.


	11. Empty

**Chapter 11: Empty**

Oliver felt like quite possibly the biggest fool that had ever lived, as he took in the look of fear on Katie's face. The fact of the matter was that she couldn't quite meet his eye. And that was when he knew.

He was the other guy.

Of course he had realized this in the middle of Ron's announcement of his daughter's arrival and, while shocked, no one had ever accused Oliver of being anything less than a gentleman. He could wait a moment before questioning his best friend.

It wasn't as if it mattered after all. Yes, she was his best friend and yes, the evidence pointed to the fact that she had some fairly strong feelings for him if the elaborate plan that she and Harry had apparently concocted was anything to go on, but that didn't mean that he had to ignore the fact that he had a live in girlfriend that he was in love with.

All this seemed to fall to the wayside however as the room cleared and he was left with his two star Quidditch players, his humiliation at being one of the subjects in their little game now hanging in the air like a cloud above their heads. They knew. They knew that he knew and that, Oliver came to the realization, was the most refreshing thing in the world.

At least they were finally being honest.

"Oliver…" Katie started, her gaze still avoiding his own like the plague. She wasn't sure exactly what she had done to allow him to see the secret in her eyes that she had been hiding for him since Hogwarts but, now that the cat was officially out of the bag and running across the room, she couldn't help but ask herself whether or not she could get away with lying. She knew that her conscience wouldn't allow that though, at least not tonight after watching Harry spill all of his secrets to an avidly interested room. It would be hypocritical of her to watch this and then turn around and deny her own secrets…

"Don't," Oliver raised a hand to physically stop her words. "Just…don't."

An awkward silence fell between them. This was saying a lot considering how awkward the short spans of silence had been before the four words that Oliver and Katie had exchanged mere moments ago had been spoken.

Harry let out a harsh sigh. He couldn't just stand here and let the potential relationship between Oliver and Katie be destroyed before it even began. After all, it might be over for him and Ginny, but it didn't have to be the same for the pair standing with him in the hospital wing. "Oliver, I know how you must be feeling right now and…"

Oliver out a harsh laugh as he ran a hand through his hand, interrupting whatever words of manipulation were about to come out of his mouth, "Really Harry? Are you a mind reader now, because unless you've just discovered that your best friend had an elaborate scheme to try to get you to fall in love with them when they knew you had a steady girlfriend then no, you don't know how I feel."

Katie, indignant at this last statement, spoke up angrily, "Now just wait a minute Oliver. How do you know that I had an elaborate scheme?"

Oliver shot her an incredulous look and started to pace the room, "Oh come on! I know you Katie. There's a reason we've been best friends for so many years and it's because of that, that I know that the only reason you would even consider marrying a man who not only loved someone else but that also didn't love you would be if you were trying to make someone else jealous." He paused in his pacing to look her straight in the eye, taking in with snide satisfaction the look of shock on her face at his very accurate guesses. "How'm I doing so far?"

Neither Harry nor Katie could bring themselves to do anything more than hang their heads sheepishly.

Oliver rolled his eyes. Neither appeared quick to offer any explanations, as he had expected.

"Oliver," Katie murmured, trying to get through to him as she looked up to meet his eyes for the first time in the last five minutes. "It was the only way."

"The only way!" he retorted, going back to his angry pacing of the room. "How about just admitting that you had feelings for me, maybe ask me out for a drink as more than friends? Start things slow before we get to the manipulation!"

"Oliver," Harry tried again, in a low voice as he contemplated the mess he and Katie had gotten themselves into. It was their fault that they were in this situation in the first place.

"No Harry, I'm done being humiliated for one evening," Oliver cleared his throat and looked towards the door. "Let Hermione and Ron know that I was here please. Tell them congratulations for me."

And with that, Oliver strode away from the manipulating pair and left the hospital wing. Harry and Katie, each deflated after the arguments of the evening, simply sat down in the empty waiting room and were silent. They had a lot to think about.

Oliver was still fuming when he entered his flat an hour later, so much so that he didn't take in the clothes hanging haphazardly from odd items in his living room. Normally he would have noticed Fleur's lilac lace bra hanging enticingly over a lamp but tonight, his mind was understandably elsewhere. He was tired, weary of all the secrets he had been privy to this evening and he just wanted to get some sleep.

It was with this in mind that Oliver wandered toward his bedroom, tilting his head slightly as he took in the odd noises that were coming from the other side of the door. He furrowed his brow in confusion, and opened it.

He immediately wished he hadn't as his evening took an immediate turn for the worst. There, in their bed, was Fleur being thoroughly shagged by Victor Krum who, as Oliver had heard on the Wizarding Wireless Network that morning, was in England for a press conference regarding the state of Bulgaria's National Quidditch team.

Later, Oliver would reflect upon the situation and realize how impressed he was at how far Fleur's English had come in the last few years but right at the moment, the only thoughts that were going through his head revolved around the fact that he had had enough of this horrible evening. "What the fuck is this!

Fleur's eyes popped open in horror, her hands pushing Krum off of her, "Oliver! What are you doing home so early!"

"You're laying in our bed, freshly shagged by a man who's not your boyfriend and that's the question you ask?" Oliver spat out, wasting no time in going to the closet and getting his trunk. With a wave of his wand, all of his belongings in the flat began to pack themselves into the magically enlarged space.

"What are you doing?" Fleur, ignoring the fact that her lover was lying in the bed awkwardly with a swiftly retrieved blanket over his groin, got out of the bed and grabbed the sheet that she and Krum had defiled in their hunger for each other. Almost desperately, she walked over to her boyfriend.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Oliver watched as all of the books from his bookshelf stacked themselves neatly into his trunk, waving his wand casually as he shrunk all of the heirlooms and pieces of furniture his parents had left him when they had died in the war. This was an abrupt decision he was making, packing up immediately and leaving Fleur, but he knew that it was the right one. He was through being manipulated tonight and he refused to be played with further.

"Well it looks like you're leaving me….." Fleur said in a voice of disbelief. She gave a twittering spurt of laughter as if the very idea was ridiculous. Oliver simply returned this with an un-amused snort.

"Very observant Fleur, as always," Oliver said sarcastically as the last of his clothes flew out of the closet and folded themselves into his trunk. With a snap, he closed his trunk and looked his girlfriend in the eye before saying assertively, "Good-bye. It's been fun."

Fleur's face took on an alarmed expression, "Oliver wait. He meant nothing. Just a shag and…."

"And what Fleur?" Oliver said wearily. He had had enough lies in one evening to last a lifetime.

"I love you," she said simply, the sheet that she had stolen from the bed making her look virginal and innocent. It was really a pity that Oliver now knew better.

"I wish I could believe that," he murmured, looking her in the eye. It would do him no good whatsoever if he got angry at this point. No, Oliver Wood would be better off taking the high road with this one, and forgiving his wayward girlfriend. After all, life was too short for holding grudges.

"Fleur, I can't be with someone that could do something like this to me. I need someone faithful, someone who appreciates what we have and what we could have," he paused, drawing a phrase he had heard Katie using once, referring to her failed relationship with Marcus Flint right after she had left Hogwarts.

"Love isn't done in halves Fleur," he said simply. "It's only been a one-sided thing with us for awhile now." He paused to chuckle lightly, laying a palm against her cheek, "I should have realized earlier and then maybe we wouldn't have had to find out this way." He finished this statement with a gesture of his hand at the still lounging body of Victor Krum in his bed.

Fleur nodded her head in agreement and Oliver could see the tears that were forming in her eyes.

He sighed, feeling that, despite what he had walked in on, something of what they had could still be preserved, albeit in another form. "Look, this is going to sound awfully clichéd but, I still want to be your friend and…."

Fleur scoffed, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. "Do you even have to ask Ollie? Of course I'll still be your friend."

He nodded, handing her his handkerchief. "Well that's settled then." He sighed again, "I'll see you around?"

She smiled slightly, "Yeah, we will. Good-bye Ollie."

"Good-bye Fleur." And with that, he left the room, his trunk following him as he moved toward the door and opened it. He paused, looking around the room, now bare of his possessions. His life had changed twice in one evening and this apartment, in a fit of Maudlin remembrance, was a symbol of that. He sighed, feeling every inch the way the sparsely furnished rooms now looked; empty but with the potential for something more. There was only one person he could talk to in a situation like this.

That is, if she was still talking to him…..


	12. New Beginnings Part 1

**Chapter 12-New Beginnings Part 1**

Harry and Ron sat quietly in the dim hospital wing at Hogwarts, Ron holding his new daughter as Hermione slept peacefully in the bed opposite the two men. Ron was the first to break the silence, the rough timbre of his voice cracking slightly from the tears of joy he had so recently cried. He hadn't forgotten about what he and Harry had been talking about when they had been interrupted, however, "So, you were saying?"

Harry laughed lightly and, if Ron had paid closer attention to his best friend, bitterly, "I can't believe you remember what we were talking about, Ron." He motioned to the baby girl currently sleeping silently in her father's arms.

Ron shrugged, his mouth quirking into a smile and his gaze falling briefly on Harry's red-headed goddaughter. "Harry, let's be serious here. Hermione and I have been trying for how many months to get you to tell us who your mystery girl is and you suddenly look like you're going to tell us?" He shook his head. "You're not getting out of spilling the beans just because Hermione happened to go into labour."

Harry looked down at his lap, questioning the sanity of telling his best friend that he was in love with his sister and not only that, but he had been in love with her since his seventh year of Hogwarts. Furthermore, that the secret had come out and it had helped facilitate the break-up of his sister's engagement. Of course, she had done the breaking off of said engagement herself but he still felt responsible.

"Harry, you've got to tell us," Ron protested at his best friend's hesitancy. "Do it for Ella then."

Harry smirked at this. "Ella is 2 hours old Ron. She doesn't care if I tell you or Hermione who I've secretly been pining away for for the last few years."

"Years?" Ron looked shocked, looking down at Ella, who was looking up at her father with big, heavy blue eyes. He assumed they were his eyes (as Hermione had brown) but he couldn't be sure if they were the product of genetics or the fact that his daughter was only a few hours old and hadn't yet had her eye colour change from the blue that most babies were born with. "Did you hear that? Years!" Ella simply grimaced, yawning widely as her eyes drooped even more heavily than they had been before. He looked up to send his best friend a smirk and a wry look, standing to take his daughter and lay her down into the bassinette lying next to his wife's bed. "Well? Aren't you going to tell us then?"

"I'm not sure," Harry protested, still smiling as he rubbed a hand through his hair and watching as Ron knelt over the bassinette, smiling tenderly at his firstborn.

And thus was the heart of his problem at the moment. It was true that he had spilled the beans to the Weasley's, and to Oliver, but he wasn't sure if now was the time to be bringing up such a topic as the 'Ron, I've been madly in love with your sister for years.' Somehow, he knew that it was going to have to be a more delicate procedure than that as Ron was perhaps Ginny's closest brother, not only in age, but emotionally. He was about to say something to stall the conversation from its inevitable end when Hermione's weak voice came suddenly up from the bed she occupied across the room.

"It's Ginny, isn't it?" she said softly, grimacing as she sat up and two sets of arms were immediately there to prop her up with pillows. "Thanks boys, you know it's not necessary…."

"Not necessary?" Harry scoffed, desperately hoping that they would find a topic and stick to it, far away from the subject of Ginny, especially since she was now definitely NOT getting married in a few short weeks. He doubted that anyone in the Weasley family was going to forget that fact, or that he had been the one to ruin the engagement. Granted, Colin wasn't blameless in the matter; he was a lying and cheating bastard, but he had been Ginny's fiancée and that kind of relationship was not something a family like the Weasley's took lightly.

"You just had a baby Hermione."

"Don't try to change the subject Harry Potter," Hermione scolded, reaching for Ella who, despite the fact that she had been falling asleep mere moments ago, had seemed to sense that she was close to her mother again and wanted to take advantage of that fact.

"What are you talking about Hermione?" Ron asked in a confused voice, watching as his wife fed their daughter. "Harry wouldn't be trying to change the subject unless there was some truth in what you said and there wouldn't be truth in what you said unless…"

"I'm in love with your sister, Ron." Harry finished, resigned to the fact that the secret was out and praying that his best friend wouldn't fly off the handle like he had been known to do in the past.

"What!" Ron exclaimed, reaching for the side of the bed and sitting down in shock at his wife's feet. He hadn't been expecting something like this. "You're in love with my sister?"

Harry simply nodded.

"Are you crazy! You know she's getting married, right?" Ron said loudly, forgetting that they were in the hospital wing and he should keep his voice down.

Harry ran a tired hand over his eyes. Indeed, it was 3 in the morning; he had a right to be tired. But what he was really tired was of the situation itself. Truthfully, he had never hated himself more than the moment that he had realized that he was too late for Ginny and that, subconsciously frustrated by this unsatisfactory state, he had consciously ruined any chance she might have had with Colin by blurting out a secret that wasn't his to tell. "Well, not anymore…besides, I'm too late."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "For Ginny? Harry, it's not too late until she's says 'I do.'" She frowned, "And what do you mean 'not anymore'?"

Harry sighed, not really sure of how to break the news that Ginny and he were both single again. "Colin wasn't exactly being honest with Ginny and….something happened in outside that brought that fact out to her attention."

"So it's true then…..Colin WAS having an affair?" Hermione said quietly, shaking her head, "With Laura. But he's engaged to Ginny…"

"Was," Harry said shortly, looking down at his hands and sighing, "I took care of ending the relationship, remember? And since when did you know that it was Laura? I thought…"

Hermione waved a hand dismissively at Harry, "Well who else could it be with? They're co-workers, and quite frankly everyone knows that Colin doesn't have much of a life beyond work and home. It was either Laura or some non-existent housekeeper."

"Yeah, well," Harry looked down at his hands. Hermione's powers of deduction never ceased to amaze him, even after all these years. "I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have said anything. She just…she wouldn't let me explain and," he sighed harshly, "I told her too much inadvertently. I was just so angry and frustrated and…"

"Shhh," Hermione shushed the distraught Harry by placing a hand on one of his. "It's going to be okay."

"What happened out there mate?" Ron said quietly, wanting the whole story from his best friend before he got Ginny's version. Indeed, he was almost positive that his tempestuous sister would, instead of giving an objective version, reel him a tale of treachery and betrayal designed to incriminate Harry as the bad guy and paint her as the innocent, which Ron knew for a fact that she wasn't. After all, he had grown up with her and, while she might at times embrace her softer side, he knew that in this particular circumstance her anger would be ruling her and she would end up saying things that she didn't really mean. Harry was a different story. Since Voldemort was killed, he had become a different man, a more stable man. Hermione had once told him that she thought it had to do with the re-evaluation of his life that Harry had had to make once his 'destiny' was taken care of. His purpose, defeating Voldemort, was completed and from that point onward he had to redefine himself. The new Harry, it turned out, was a quiet and thoughtful man who rarely got really angry and who considered what he was going to say before he was about to say it. He was broken from his musings however by the sound of Harry's voice.

"Katie managed to convince her doctor to let her out of the hospital for the night to come wait in the waiting room with me and Oliver. We both thought it was a bad idea, but she wouldn't listen. And Ginny, Ginny wouldn't leave it alone," he sighed, looking up and meeting Ron's gaze as he remembered. "She didn't know why Katie had insisted on coming and spent quite awhile trying to convince both of us that she needed to get back to her hospital room as soon as possible. Eventually I lost my temper. I ended up mentioning that it was her that knocked Katie off her broom in the first place, although looking back at it, I'm sure it wasn't intentionally…"

Harry didn't notice the worried look that passed over Hermione's face. She knew for a fact that the fall had been intentional on Ginny's part.

"….And then everything started to come apart. She got angry that I had said that she may have caused Katie's accident and that I accused her of not being brave enough to stick around to take any blame that might have been due to her and then Colin jumped in, insisting that I apologize to Ginny."

"And did you?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry shook his head, "No, of course not. I got angry and defensive and I said that I would apologize to Ginny when he did. And then…it just started to come out. He and I fought and I decided that, at that moment in time, it was better to make Colin own up to what he had done instead of protecting Ginny from the truth. Katie tried to stop me but, it was too late. They argued and broke their engagement. Then, Ginny handed back the ring to Colin, he left, and then she turned on me."

"How so?" Hermione asked.

"She accused me of sabotaging her relationship by telling her what Colin was up to and she asked me why I'd care about whether or not she was with a liar and…"

"That's when you told her you were in love with her," Hermione laughed quietly, amused by the story that Harry was telling them.

"That's when I told her," he murmured.

"And what was her reaction?" Ron asked.

Harry smirked bitterly, "She punched me and then she left. I probably shouldn't have said anything to her at all about Colin."

"Well, it's a good thing you did," Ron piped up, standing and pacing the floor angrily. "No sister of mine would ever marry someone that would cheat on her."

"Well she was going to," Harry retorted, "Had I not said anything, she still would be."

"Again, I'm sure she wouldn't have if she had known," Ron continued more insistently this time. "On behalf of my entire family, thank you. Stupid or not, it was the right thing to do. " He furrowed his brow. Something about Harry's facial expression made him believe that that wasn't all that was on the Boy Who Lived mind. "What else is wrong with you Harry?"

Harry should have known better than to think that he could pull the wool of 'I'm fine' over his best friends eyes. Ron was far more perceptive than anyone ever gave him credit for. Instead of beating around the bush, he decided to share exactly what had went on in the waiting room of the Hogwarts hospital wing. Right down to the most nasty details. After all, he knew that if he left it lie that Ron would have the information out of him anyways…..

And so Harry told all and when he was finished, he paused, waiting for the point at which his two best friends would either forgive his manipulations-or end their friendship forever

"And she punched you for that?" Hermione broke in incredulously. "After the elaborate plan that you and Katie laid out-a plan I might add was engineered with _Oliver _in mind, and not Ginny- she punched you for declaring your love for her?"

"No, she punched me for ruining her engagement and I'm sure for humiliating her in front of her entire family, but I can't be certain."

Hermione rolled her eyes, sick of hearing the negative talk emerging from Harry's mouth. She looked down at her daughter, who had, sometime during Harry's account of his grand confession to Ginny, fallen asleep midway through her dinner. With a sigh, she motioned to Ron to take the baby and watched as he did, setting Ella into her bassinette and absentmindedly doing up her nightgown. Harry, ever the gentleman, discreetly looked away.

"And you're just going to let her get away from you? What about Katie? What did she have to say about that?" Ron piped up grimly.

"I think I'm going to have to Ron. She was pretty angry and Oliver…I've never seen him like that. He was hurt, genuinely hurt. As for Katie, I don't think she'll ever get over this and it's all my fault," Harry said quietly.

Hermione sighed, "What's important, Harry, is that you're no longer withholding the truth from anyone. From us, from Ginny, from Oliver, from ANYBODY. You love Ginny. She knows. Katie loves Oliver. He knows. This should be a liberating experience. The truth sets you free you know."

Harry rolled his eyes, letting a bitter snort exit his nose and crossing his arms as he did so. "If this is the 'liberation of truth' Hermione, then I want to be imprisoned again."

"You say that now," she continued, "But a week from now, or even a month, you're going to be sitting in the Weasley's kitchen and they, in all likelihood, are going to thank you for sharing Colin's affair with Ginny before it was too late. And then, with any luck, Ginny's going to come around and see that this was the best thing for everyone. You might even find that she loves you too."

Hermione tried really hard to look like she didn't know that Ginny actually WAS in love with Harry at this point. It wouldn't do for her to give away the secret now. After all, it was Ginny's secret to tell and if she wanted to ignore Harry's love than maybe she didn't deserve it.

She continued, "As for Katie-I don't know. Oliver was her best friend and that just doesn't vanish overnight. Maybe there's some hope still, for her AND for you."

"Katie," Harry murmured, sitting up straighter in his chair and looking panicked. "That reminds me, I told her I'd come back and see how she was doing." He stood, looking torn as to where he should be going-or staying-at the moment.

"Oh go on Harry," Ron broke through his inner argument. "We understand. We'll see you in the morning then?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. I just…need to see if she's alright. She was pretty broken up when I left her."

"Go then," Hermione said softly, gently laying a hand on Harry's as it lay at his side. "Give Katie my regards."

And, with a nod of acknowledgement, he was gone. Hermione just hoped that her words of encouragement would help. He was certainly going to need it if he was going to get Ginny to accept him into her life again.

"Ron?" she murmured, reaching over and taking her husband's hand, making a decision about something that had been bothering her since the day of Katie's accident.

"Yes Luv?"

"There's something I need to tell you. Something about Ginny."

No one had told her she couldn't be an integral part of the acceptance process that Ginny would have Harry go through (if she knew Ginny at all, and she did…) and somehow, Hermione knew they were going to need it.


	13. New Beginnings Part 2

**Chapter 12 Part 2- New Beginnings Part 2**

Katie rolled over, trying to get comfortable in the unfamiliar hospital bed. The truth of the matter was that she didn't like hospitals very much. This, coupled with the emotional pain that came with the fact that she and Oliver were now nothing but acquaintances on a Quidditch field made it all the more difficult for her to fall asleep.

The door creaked slightly, interrupting her from her imsomniatic musings. "Oliver," Katie said in a surprised voice. He was the last person she had expected to come visit her, especially after the massive fight they had had earlier in the evening.

"Hi," he replied shortly, stepping into the room and shutting the door, "Look, I'm sorry to bother you but I need to talk to you about something."

"OK," Katie said awkwardly as she sat up in her bed. For the first time since she had met Oliver she was becoming uncomfortable. She didn't know what to say. In lieu of words, she cleared her throat, not knowing if she was prepared to be chastised once again for the part that she had played in she and Harry's manipulative plan but willing to take it if she had to. "Come in then. I'm assuming that this is about what happened tonight?"

"Yes and no. A little of both but mostly the latter," Oliver sighed, running a hand through his hair and sneaking a look at Katie as she sat in the bed. He felt bad for his behaviour earlier, however warranted it might have been. The truth of the matter was that, at the moment, he needed to talk candidly with his best friend and now wasn't the time to be holding grudges and feelings of ill-will. Putting these thoughts aside though, he spoke, "For the moment, I'd like to pretend that it didn't happen because right now I need Katie Bell, my best friend to just listen to me for a moment."

She paused, considering the fact that, based upon this encounter there might be hope for she and Oliver yet-at the very least to continue their friendship.

"Katie?" he cut into her thoughts, unsure of what she was thinking and slightly scared by the look on her face. She looked….lost and unsure, words that he had never before associated with his best friend but that were now at the forefront of her emotional range. "Should I leave? Is this a bad idea?"

"No, Oliver," Katie murmured, all the while resigning herself to the fact that if she wanted to even share friendship with Oliver again that she would have to start atoning for her manipulative games. "It's just that I really didn't expect you to ever speak to me again except on a Quidditch field after what happened tonight."

He looked at her wryly, smirking slightly, "Well I considered not talking to you about this but that didn't seem like a good option."

"And why is that?" she asked quietly. She was genuinely curious about why he was here.

She watched as he shifted uncomfortably, as if what he was about to say was physically crawling its way out from beneath his skin, "Well, I kind of found Fleur tonight in be with Victor Krum."

"WHAT!" Katie spat out, suddenly furious at the cheating ways of the woman who had been the reason she had had to formulate such an elaborate plan with Harry. "You found her in bed with Victor Krum?"

Oliver simply nodded, suddenly hesitant, "She and I are over. And, based on what I found tonight, I really think it's for the best. I had suspicions but…I didn't think she'd actually do something like that in our own bed. The point is not that I found out that she was sleeping with other men thought, or that I moved out…."

Katie felt as if she had fallen off the edge of whatever was left of reality. After everything that had happened tonight- Ginny breaking off her engagement, Ginny rejecting Harry after he told her he loved her, and then finally, Oliver and his reaction to her manipulation, she just couldn't believe that he had then gone home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man. "Then what is the point? After everything that happened tonight you went home to….that! I mean, I just…I just…and where are you staying then if you moved out?" Katie interrupted, spluttering her last question out as it suddenly breached the thick reactionary moment she was having. Laer, she would reflect on the trivial nature of the question itself and laugh.

Oliver ignored her though, continuing on as if she hadn't interrupted him at all.

"….but the swiftness of a reaction I felt when I caught her with Krum." He paused for a breath and raised his head so that he caught Katie's eye, "I was angry, but only at first. Then I was…almost relieved."

Katie furrowed her brow in confusion. "I don't understand. I thought you and Fleur…"

"Had something that might last, I know," he finished her sentence for her. "But the more I thought about how fast I made the decisions in the flat….to leave her and end it the way I did, the more I realized that the reason why I could even let myself do that had a lot to do with a lack of feelings that I had for Fleur," he paused, not sure how to say what he had to say to Katie without sounding like a complete twit. "And an abundance of feelings I suddenly realized I had for someone else."

Katie sat forward, becoming even more confused as he continued to talk. Oliver was NOT making any sense tonight but then again, when had men ever made complete sense to her? Harry was the same way when he was trying to tell her something; he could never just spit it out, he had to wax poetic about it for awhile first. One day she was going to meet a man who was as straightforward (or relatively anyways) as she was.

"Nothing compared to what I've been feeling lately," he sighed, moving a hand through his hair and meeting her gaze head on. "When I think about you."

Katie simply stared at him in disbelief as he rushed on, words that he had been waiting to say for weeks now flowing out of him.

"At first, it was just…friendship, you know? You were…are…my best friend Katie, and you always will be, despite what you were planning with Harry. In fact, I'm glad you and Harry did what you did. It made me see you in a way I had never thought of you in." He paused to chuckle. "You have no idea what I was thinking when I caught you and Harry in the changing rooms that day."

Katie, in fact, did have an idea. Several in fact, ones that Harry had been happy to relay to her during their love making session later that evening after their now infamous brush with the lights of the media when he had systematically murmured exactly what he as a man had seen in Oliver's eyes that afternoon. She had orgasmed that evening with Oliver above her, not Harry, whether Oliver knew it or not.

She gulped silently, averting her eyes as her cheeks suddenly became hot. "So you want me then? Sexually?"

He cleared his throat awkwardly, not noticing the shocked look on Katie's face as he continued, "Listen to me. Tonight….has just been one thing after another. I don't know where I stand anymore and quite frankly I'm scaring myself with my un-Oliver-like behaviour." He met Katie's eyes with a twinkle from his own. "I'm behaving absolutely Harry-like. Maybe that'll make you like me more now that I've reconciled myself to the fact that I've ruined our friendship with something we probably would have drifted into if I hadn't fought it. Although Harry also had a large part in that. I have him to thank for making me realize my true feelings."

"Oliver," she said, sighing wearily. Why couldn't he have confessed these feelings to her before she and Harry had concocted their elaborate plan? Now everything was so incredibly complicated that she had a feeling she would be digging herself out of the hole of lies she had dug for months. "Shut up. I get it. You like me. I like you. We'd both like to get to know each other in the biblical sense sometime in the near future." She cleared her throat, "But, no matter how much either of us want that…I can't let what we could have be reduced to a fling because you're on the rebound."

"For now anyways," Oliver said quietly, under his breath as he took Katie's hand into his own. He wouldn't be on the rebound long. Reluctantly, he looked at the clock on her desk. Katie should be getting her rest. The doctors had told her that she needed to stay awake for at least 3 hours due to the concussion that she still suffered from when she had been re-admitted to St. Mungo's that evening, and now that that 3 hour mark had passed, he knew that she was tired.

In his musings, he completely missed the hurt look that passed over Katie's face, only to be replaced by a faint-and if he had looked closer, completely fake smile. If he had asked why at that moment, he would have noticed her misinterpretation of what he had meant to be a statement of declaration on her person, not one of dismissal. "Look, I've got to go. You need your rest and I still need to get a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the night. I'll come visit you tomorrow."

"Not necessary," she murmured, putting her walls up again. It was safer that way. "Harry came by earlier before he went to see Ron and Hermione and he told me that the doctors said that he could take me home tomorrow morning. Beyond the hurt head, I'm in perfect health."

"Oh." Was Oliver's only reply to this.

"Maybe we could do lunch sometime next week though. Maybe one morning after practice. My treat for the manipulation I put you through."

"Alright," he gave her a half smile and with that, he leaned forward to gently brush a kiss across her cheek.

Girlish delight rose within her and she smiled gently, watching as he withdrew from her and returned the smile. For all of her intentions of letting Oliver get over Fleur in his own time, she had a funny feeling that that course of action wasn't in the cards for them.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" he murmured, standing and looking down at her on the bed.

She nodded. "Until tomorrow Oliver."

And with that, he turned and left. It had been a long and arduous day but somehow, despite everything that had happened, it had still managed to be a good one.


	14. The Meaning of Want

**Chapter 13-The Meaning of Want**

**3 Months Later**

Ginny Weasley threw her dirty Quidditch gloves to the bench angrily, sitting down and watching as her team mates around her displayed similar bouts of dissatisfaction as they finished dressing. They had just lost the Quidditch National Cup.

There was nothing that could have been done about it. The score had been tied between the Cannons and the Harpies for the entire game, only being settled by Harry who, as always, had caught the Snitch. They had lost, fair and square but that didn't make the hurt of losing after a near perfect season stop though.

She sighed. Her parents and brothers had spent a half an hour on the field after the game comforting her while wanting to go congratulate Harry, who had been swiftly taken off to the post-game party that the Cannons were holding at the Leaky Cauldron. And now, sitting in the rapidly emptying change rooms, her previously stunned thoughts started to thaw in her brain. There was really no reason why she should be so upset about the loss-she had scored the most points in the game, of any chaser on either team- but she was and it appeared to be a state of mind that she wasn't going to shake anytime soon. So caught up in her inner musings was she that she didn't notice that she was now alone in the change rooms.

"Ginny?" a familiar voice called into the empty rooms. Not so alone it seemed…

"Harry?" she replied questioningly, watching as he emerged from around the corner of the lockers-having ditched his Chudley orange for jeans and a t-shirt. "What are you doing here?"

"You weren't at the party. I got worried," he murmured, sitting down next to her on the bench. "How're you doing?"

"Are you kidding me? I just lost. Against you. And you're expecting me to come to the party celebrating my defeat?" Ginny laughed incredulously. It was true that they were on speaking terms (although that hadn't happened until about a month of stilted conversation in the house that both of them still called home) but it didn't mean that she had expected him to question her about her general wellbeing upon losing a game that Harry had known going in that he was going to win. After all, Holyhead had a killer instinct when it came to handling the Quaffle but they had yet to find a seeker that could best the great Harry Potter. Ginny doubted that they ever would. This had meant that, going into the game, Holyhead would have had to have scored twice as many times as Chudley.

This hadn't happened obviously.

"I'm sorry. I…I didn't think. It's just that your entire family was there and…." Harry gulped nervously, inwardly kicking himself for such a mistake.

She nodded, a small smile forcing itself from her face as she looked at him. Despite their estrangement, she still found it cute when he was apologetic. "Um-hm. I kind of figured that. You're a part of the family too, after all." She cleared her throat, lifting her head up to look at the man who, with his team, had defeated her in the game of her life. "How's the party going then? Pretend like I care…"

Harry looked her directly in the eye apologetically. Ginny continued to eat up the eye candy that was a repentant Harry Potter, "Good. So good that no one noticed I walked out to find you."

Ginny sighed again, now feeling guilty for her curt words to him earlier but knowing at the same time that she had to take this opportunity to set some things straight with him. "Look Harry, I know that you have feelings for me but…"

"This has nothing to do with any feelings I may or may not have for you."

Ginny, however, had known Harry for too long to be fooled by these words. His actions always sold him out when he was trying to lie to anyone close to him.

"Harry, you told me that you loved me only 3 months ago. You broke up my engagement."

"Because he was cheating on you…." Harry defended himself weakly as he crossed his arms, anger beginning to build within him.

"Because you wanted me for yourself," Ginny shot back at him, beginning to get annoyed now.

He didn't answer this statement, choosing instead to look down at the hands in his lap.

She stood, going to her locker and taking off her guards. "Look, as much fun as this has been, I really need to get changed before I'm the last one in this locker room."

"Too late," he said quietly. Truth be told, he didn't know why he was here or why he had left his own party to return to the stadium and moreover to a woman who didn't want him the way he wanted her. The fact remained that he had and for that reason, he was going to stick around whether she wanted him to or not.

"Oh," she looked around, seeing him that he was right. "Doesn't matter though. I need to get changed and then I need to get back to Mum's house. It's been a long day and I'm tired."

Harry didn't move anywhere.

"That means you have to leave Harry," Ginny crossed her arms testily. He was so thick sometimes…

"Right," he said succinctly, sighing and standing. He was wrong to have come tonight and he now knew that. He wouldn't be trying something as stupid as this again.

He crossed to the end of the row of lockers, disappearing around the corner. "It's not like I haven't had you send me away before."

Ginny paused from the removal of her shirt. "And just what exactly is that supposed to mean? The last time I checked I was the one who gave up the crush I had on you first. I didn't send you away, YOU sent ME away. You're the one who had to suddenly realize you had feelings on me after I got over you. And you're also the one who had to come up with the elaborate scheme to get me and who ruined any kind of relationship I might have had with Colin."

Harry stepped back around the corner, his face having taken on the snarl that Snape had so often sported when he was especially perturbed at Ginny's last words, "Is that so? If we're talking about Colin, I think I did you a favour. He was cheating on you Ginny. Even I, the self-professed manipulator of your heart, can admit that I think it was wrong. Cheating is wrong and as far as I'm concerned, I didn't destroy the relationship you had with Colin, I saved you from it. And hey, while we're having this spat, maybe you can answer me this: wouldn't it have been prudent for you to have acted on your 'crush' earlier? Maybe we might not have found ourselves in this position if you had."

Ginny stepped toward him hotly, now not realizing what she was saying. She was a Weasley first and foremost and goodness knows that she had the temper to go along with it. "I tried. But you were otherwise occupied with Susan, remember? Quite frankly my crush had progressed into more than just a crush. I thought that I would be better off with being your friend and at least have a part of you in that role, rather than be the girl who was destined to love you from afar for the rest of her life, and have none of you!"

Harry was speechless at this. Ginny was just full of surprises tonight.

He hadn't known. He just hadn't known and now that he did, he couldn't say anything, couldn't do anything because he was so surprised. In fact, a good 20 seconds passed between the two before something happened. Something that Ginny had never dreamed would happen, and that Harry had.

He kissed her.

Ginny was so shocked by what was happening that the outraged Weasley part of her was temporarily pushed to the background and replaced by a creature that greatly resembled every swooning female she had ever read about in novels. Sadly for her though, this didn't last long…

"WHAT are you doing!" she pushed Harry away, trying to catch her breath from the mind-numbing kiss that she had just received.

Harry looked bewildered, as if he himself had gotten so caught up in his anger and frustration that the kiss had also taken him by surprise, "I…I'm not sure."

"Well get sure!" Ginny wailed, wiping a hand over her mouth and trying desperately to calm her body to the point that she didn't want to return the favour that Harry had inadvertently bestowed upon her. She lost the battle, the lost look on Harry's face getting the better of her.

The kiss that followed was intense, more so than the last had been, and longer-about 5 minutes longer. When they finally broke apart, they were both gasping.

"Same question. What was that for? Not that I mind," Harry panted, leaning his forehead against Ginny's own as his hands roamed her body. It seemed that his body, for so long a Ginny free zone, were finally succumbing to the years of deprivation ithad been subjected to.

"Same answer. It's just…I don't know. I'm over you. I KNOW I'm over you so why do I want to snog you senseless?" Ginny moaned, tilting her head up and away from Harry's in order to kiss him again.

"Don't know," Harry murmured as his hands resumed their roaming and slipped under her Quidditch shirt. "Must be that famous Weasley temper channelling itself into other areas. I was expecting you to slap me for that kiss, not snog me."

Ginny snorted with inadvertent laughter, groaning as his hands gently brushed her bra strap and her nipples hardened further in anticipation. This was wrong….it was too fast and they should stop. Harry, ever the stereotypical man, didn't appear to be anywhere near to drawing that line in their relationship and so she would have to do it. "Stop that. I can't think when you do…oh…that," Ginny whimpered in a low voice as he stroked her back in time to their kisses, hands creeping ever closer to her point of no return.

"Alright," Harry reluctantly complied with Ginny's verbalized wishes, slowly bringing the kiss to a close and beginning to remove his hands. After all, this was the first step-albeit quite a large one- in building any future relationship they might have and he didn't want to sabotage it before it had even begun.

"No, don't," she held his hands in place, leaning in to kiss him again. Harry gladly met her lips with his own before…."OK, yeah. Stop."

He let out a frustrated sigh, removing his hands completely. Ginny's back suddenly felt cold. "Well which is it?"

"Stop," Ginny sighed, frustration from her throbbing body warring with her stubborn mind. Every fibre of her being was screaming at her to beware the man who was standing in front of her. He had hurt her, manipulated her….rejected her and now appeared to want her if the current state of his trousers was any indication. The insane part of herself was currently screaming to embrace the latter statement, throw him against the locker room doors and have her naughty way with him but the sane part of her told her to proceed with caution in order to preserve what was left of her dignity and ultimately, her heart. She sighed again, this time in resignation at the fact that her sanity had won out-again. "Look Harry. I don't know what just happened between us but, whatever it is, it can't happen again. At least not this way. I loved you, once upon a time and that's the truth but you've hurt me and I just can't forget that."

"I know," Harry stepped back and ran a hand through his unruly hair. "And I'm sorry."

"I know you are," Ginny said finally, closing her eyes as her insane side won a small battle with the sane side and she opened her mouth again. "Which is why I want to go out with you Friday night, if you're free."

Harry's eyes widened. He hadn't been expecting that. "On a date? You and me?"

"No, with the other Boy-Who-Lived who just snogged me senseless. Yes, you. Now are you free or not?" Ginny rolled her eyes. This was the Harry she knew and loved. The self-conscious, and innocent boy she had once watched her brother board the train to Hogwarts with, and the man that she had fallen in love with at the same moment.

"Yeah, I'm free," Harry murmured, trying to digest the surreal situation that had just fallen into his lap. Not only was he going on a date with Ginny Weasley, but he hadn't had to ask her himself-therefore cutting out the potential for being shot down and blamed-eventually-for ruining their friendship. "Where do you want to go?"

"Surprise me," she smiled gently, relaxing slightly now that the answer she had gotten was clearly yes.

"Okay…" he nodded his head in thought, a smile now gracing his unsure features. "Friday then? 8 o'clock?"

"Friday, 8 o'clock."

"Alright," And with that, he left the locker rooms to Ginny and her thoughts, taking his own rapidly racing ones with him.


	15. Encounters

**Chapter 14-Encounters **

"Katie?" Harry called as he stepped into her flat, using the key that she had given him months ago. 'Strange,' he thought to himself. It was too quiet…

"I'm in the kitchen, Harry!" he heard her call.

Feeling better about the situation, he sighed, taking the few steps to the kitchen and smirking as he caught sight of his ex-girlfriend turned friend. A 3 weeks after they had had the encounter with Ginny and Oliver at Hogwarts, they had 'officially' broken up. Although, if he got right down to it, the correct name for what happened was waking up hungover next to each other after a night of drunken sex and realizing that, despite the fact that the chances of them being together completely with Ginny or Oliver were slim (although Katie stood an entirely better chance than he did), they probably shouldn't be 'together' anymore. The morning after, they had decided to 'break up.' This had been plotted out and acted out in the Leaky Cauldron for all the press to see and sure enough, the next morning, everyone knew. Now, they were 'officially' just friends.

And so Harry entered Katie's kitchen with a thinly disguised smile on his fact, bursting to share the news with her that he and Ginny were finally on the verge of something more than the terse co-habitation they had been living in for the past few months. But even this had been a step up from what they had done before that. Not speaking had a habit of tainting a relationship.

"Am I to believe that something has happened then? You look like the cat who ate the canary," Katie drawled as she looked up from the plate of sandwiches she had just finished arranging.

Harry let the stupid grin that he had been trying to hide when he had entered her flat loose on his face. "Why yes actually, something did happen. Something quite extraordinary."

"And just what would that be?" Katie leaned forward conversationally on the island that sat in the middle of her kitchen, inadvertently giving Harry an eyeful of the bountiful cleavage she had (hidden only by the satin bathrobe she was wearing).

Harry's grin turned into a smirk. "Someone has a date with Ginny Weasley this Friday night."

"Does that someone have dark hair, green eyes and a tell tale scar on his forehead?" Katie teased, knowing full well what Harry was telling her and feeling extremely happy for him. After all, no one deserved it as much as Harry.

Harry leaned forward on the counter top across from his ex. "Why yes Katie, how did you know?"

"Just a guess. I know how much you like to rave about who your beloved goes out with," she sighed, straightening herself up and going to the refrigerator for the jug of pumpkin juice.

"Well I wouldn't call her that," Harry piped up defensively. He was in love yes, but that didn't mean that he had spent the last few months pining away for a woman who….he furrowed his brow. She was right. Beloved was a good word for what Ginny was to him.

Katie simply shot him a look as she poured two glasses of juice and sat them on the countertop. "You love her Harry and that's what matters. What you call her is your own business."

"Speaking of business," Harry's thoughts suddenly turned sober. "How are the press treating you these days? Still bothering you for interviews?"

"No." Katie replied succinctly. "Although your fans seemed convinced that I'm to blame for the break-up. I've had to put up enhanced security measures on my mail to guard against stray curses."

"Oh Katie…."

"Harry, it's fine," she sighed, letting a sly grin appear on her face. "After all, it's not like I wasn't satisfied with the relationship. And ending it, yes, was extremely…frustrating. I'm certainly going to miss the sex but it was unhealthy…the manipulation, not the sex….and I think we're both moving on now as far as the press is concerned. Both you and I know that it was over a long time before anyone thinks it was."

"About that," Harry went on awkwardly. What Katie was saying was true but at the same time, he still felt a little awkward about what happened between them to make them realize that they had to publically break-up. "Can we talk a bit about that evening? I just…I want to know that everything is alright between you and I, and what about…."

"…Ginny?" Katie finished his sentence coyly. "Don't worry Harry. I won't be saying anything. We were both drunk and it was 3 weeks after she had blatantly rejected you in front of her entire family. I think a little comfort sex was called for. We just aren't going to let it happen again because of our prospective relationships that formed the basis for our previous relationship."

"That WAS the only reason for it all, wasn't it?"

"The sex? Or our friendship?" Katie came around the counter and leaned her elbows on the countertop next to Harry, catching his eye as she did so. "Because I think we probably would have done it at some point, even if we had stuck with a purely platonic friendship."

"You think? I mean," he shifted uncomfortably. ""The sex did come kind of naturally." _A little too naturally,_ Harry thought. Indeed, 2 evenings into their talks about their unrequited loves had found Harry and Katie screwing each other silly outside of the Leaky Cauldron under the helpful effects of an obscurity charm.

"I think that despite whatever would have happened had we not banded together for this crazy adventure that we still would have ended here. Friends first, with the option but not necessity of more," Katie finished. She laid a hand on Harry's. "Look, what we have now is a product of all of that…nonsense. And it was nonsense. Really great, fulfilling nonsense, but nonsense none the less. We should never have manipulated Oliver and Ginny the way we did."

"And now we're paying for it," Harry murmured, running a hand through his thick hair and wondering if, come Friday, Ginny would inquire about the last time he had sex with his ex-fiancée.

"And now we're paying for it," Katie repeated soberly. "Although I think we're nearing the end of it all."

"And just how do you know that?" Harry looked at her, seeing the earnest expression on her face and feeling his curiosity perk up. "And what's with the juice and sandwiches? Don't we usually drink firewhiskey on evenings like this?" He looked at the juice, then the sandwiches and furrowed his brow in confusion. "Were you expecting me?" A thought suddenly occurred to him and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. "Or someone else?"

It wasn't Katie that answered him though. From the living room, he heard the creak of her bedroom opening and suddenly….Oliver was in the kitchen.

Harry's jaw dropped as he took in the sight of the Cannons Quidditch Captain….clad only in a pair of boxers, clearly having recently had sex with Katie if her own lack of clothing under the bathrobe was any indication. "When did this happen!"

"About a month and a half ago. A little while after…while you know." Katie smiled, moving to give her lover a kiss.

"We all know," Oliver said dryly as he placed an arm over Katie's shoulder. "Including myself and I want you to know that I don't care. If I were in your shoes I too would probably had one last drunken fling with this gorgeous women."

"Oliver," Katie rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Stop. You're embarrassing me with your sweet words."

"Yes luv, I know but it's important to state the obvious," Oliver sighed, a smirk threatening to break his face in two. "Harry here knows. Hopefully he won't know this again in the near future though…"

"Indeed I do," Harry joined in the fun at Katie's expense. "And you have nothing to worry about. Tell me though Oliver, does she still do that thing with her face when she's about to…."

"I do not make faces in that context!"

"Yes you do," both Harry and Oliver said together, identical looks of amusement on their faces.

Harry looked down at his watch as he looked at the gaze of longing that soon was exchanged by the couple in front of him. It was time to go.

"Well, I'll just be seeing the two of you later then?" he said quietly, turning the leave the kitchen and exit the flat entirely before Katie decided to have her way with Oliver- company or no company.

"Keep me posted on the Ginny situation. Where are you taking her by the way?" Katie looked up from the eye sex she was currently having with Oliver.

"I thought I'd take her to the Muggle Cinema. The reporters have just been horrible lately and I don't want to subject her to the scrutiny of the press this soon in our relationship," Harry looked down at his hands, shuffling his feet nervously. This decision had come not a half hour after he had left Ginny in the change rooms. Indeed, with the break-up of his 'engagement,' he had once again become the subject of a fair amount of news-both real and fictional. "Might scare her off."

"I'm sure a little press won't scare her off Harry. She's known you forever and she's had feelings for you almost that long…" Oliver cut in, having overheard about Harry's date with Ginny from the bedroom where he had been resting after he and Katie's second romp. Katie was, if anything, enthusiastic…

"Oh really? Susan knew me 'forever' and it scared her off," Harry said bitterly.

"Harry, I'm sure this time'll be different," Oliver said quietly, already showing Harry signs of territoriality in his cradling of Katie's body against his own. "Besides, Susan wasn't right for you anyway. I'm sure whatever Ginny might use to break-up with you won't have anything to do with the paparazzi."

He cleared his throat, running his hand through his already messy hand anxiously. That's what he was afraid of, "Let's hope so eh? I really don't feel like have a pseudo-engagement again with your girl here. I'll see you guys later then?"

Oliver and Katie nodded, their attentions already drawn back to each other.

Harry smiled, turning to leave. He was happy for them. As for his other concern, that of his indiscretion with Katie only three weeks after the now infamous fight at Hogwarts, well, hopefully Ginny would be as understanding as Oliver had been. That is, if she needed to know at all…

"Are you sure you're alright with everything that's happened between Harry and I?" Katie asked quietly as she and Oliver entered her bedroom, the plate of sandwiches and cups of juice making their way to her dressing table.

Oliver sat down on the edge of the bed, sighing. "Not the way you want me to be, I think. I'm still not comfortable with the fact that you two slept together again. And I don't think I'll ever be but in order to make this work, I have to realize," he reached out his hand to her and took her own, pulling her toward him and into his lap. "That he is the reason why you and I are together and for that, I guess I should thank him."

"Oh Oliver," Katie sighed, tipping his head up and placing a kiss on his lips. "I'm sorry. We…we weren't thinking right that night. We were both sad and lonely-you and I were only sort of speaking and Ginny wasn't even acknowledging that he was even living in the same house as she was-and we were drinking fairly heavily…"

"Yes, about that. Remind me to never let you and Harry drink alone again," Oliver said wryly. The truth of the matter was that he didn't blame Katie for her behaviour with Harry. He was annoyed by it, but he didn't blame either of them.

Sensing that they had moved on from the awkward portion of their conversation, the air finally cleared, Katie leaned forward and kissed him again. "Thank you for being so understanding."

"We weren't together yet. I have to recognize that I can't-and shouldn't-judge you for your past actions. Goodness knows you haven't judged me thus far on my disastrous relationship with Fleur. Well, barring not sleeping with me immediately after your release from the hospital," he returned the kiss, slipping a hand under her bathrobe as he did so.

"You were on the rebound Oliver. It wouldn't have been fair to either of us," Katie sighed into his mouth.

"And I'm happy you made me wait. Fleur certainly didn't bother," he pulled away slightly to breathe, thinking of the way in which he had broken up with the French woman. No, she hadn't even finished her relationship with Oliver before jumping into bed with Victor Krum. From what he had heard just the other day, she was now onto a new conquest-a Russian Chaser that she had met when she had gone to Bulgaria with Victor a month after she and Oliver's break-up.

"It's her loss Oliver," Katie murmured, readjusting herself on his lap so that she was straddling him. "And my incredible gain."

"Why yes it is Miss. Bell, yes it is," Oliver groaned as her crouch came into direct contact with his own, his mouth overtaking her own and devouring it. Thinking about Fleur was pointless. He had Katie now and she was worth about 10 Fleurs. She was his best friend, his confidante and, more importantly at the moment, his lover. Moaning now as the woman on top of his opened her bathrobe and reached under his boxer shorts to remove his rapidly hardening cock, he smiled. Things had certainly worked out for Oliver Wood.


	16. First Date

**Chapter 15-First Date**

Harry nervously straightened his shirt as he looked in the mirror. This wouldn't do. This wouldn't do at all.

"I think you look smashing," Hermione called from where she and Ron were sprawled on his bed.

Harry simply shot them an annoyed look and moved toward the dresser, slapping his watch down on his wrist and barking, "Why are you two here anyway?"

"Moral support, Mate," Ron smirked. "It's not every day that my best friend goes on a date with my baby sister."

"And Molly wanted to see Ella anyway," Hermione said smugly, grinning from ear to ear. She couldn't help it. She knew how much both Ginny and Harry had wanted to go out with each other and now that day had arrived.

Harry rolled his eyes. He was nervous about his date with Ginny, terrified actually, and here were his best friends lying on his bed-uninvited- and offering their 'moral support.'

He somehow thought he could do without it.

"So where are you taking her?" Ron asked, discreetly examining the bedspread as if it were the most fascinating material in the world.

Harry sighed, lowering his head in defeat. They weren't going to leave. "London. With all the publicity I've been getting after the match with Holyhead, it's becoming dangerous for me to go out into Diagon Alley without being mobbed by fans," he murmured.

"Where in London?" Hermione chimed in.

"The cinema," Harry responded tiredly, hoping against hope that his blasé attitude would gently nudge Hermione and Ron out of his bedroom and downstairs. "I've heard that she's never been."

"The Muggle cinema?" Ron exclaimed, his eyebrows raising. "Don't tell Dad you're going there otherwise you'll be forced to share all the details when you get back. You know how he is with all things Muggle."

"I really wasn't planning to," Harry straightened his collar and looked in the mirror. He was rewarded with a catcall from the inanimate object he was staring into. He blushed furiously. One day he was going to get a mirror that didn't talk to him. Trying to get over the fact that his mirror had just verbally harassed him, he turned towards his friends. "How do I look?"

"Absolutely edible Harry," Hermione smirked. "Ginny'll think so too."

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, shocked. "She's not supposed to think that! And since when do you find Harry edible?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's attractive Ron. Get over it. Thank Merlin I didn't describe him as fuckable. Goodness knows the reaction I would have gotten from that…"

"Hermione?" Both of the men in the room's jaws dropped.

"Well he is," she stood, walking past the boys to the door. "According to Ginny anyways. She told me all about the locker room incident." She trailed off, suddenly realizing that she had said too much. Trying to change the subject, she continued, although this time her voice was visibly forced. "You should wear that those jeans more often Harry. They do wonderful things for your bottom…"

Ron, having gotten over his shock-barely- trailed after his wife. "Since when do you know those words Hermione? And what locker room incident?"

"Since I started dating you, and none of your business. That's for your sister and Harry to know and for you to find out. But only if they decide to tell you," she smiled wickedly, leaning in to give him a kiss. "We'll see you later then Harry?"

Harry nodded, trying to forget the scandalous things that Hermione had been saying about him mere moments ago.

"And relax Mate!" Ron popped his head back in the door. "You'll be fine. Oh, and no repeats of whatever Hermione was talking about in the locker room. She has 6 older brothers, remember?" He paused, taking in first the heated moment of remembrance in Harry's eyes and then the scared look that flashed across his best friends face. "I'm kidding. Have a good time."

Harry simply nodded, watching as Ron left the room. He grabbed his wallet from the dresser, stepping into the hallway and tilting his head skyward. "Don't fuck this up, Potter," he murmured. Hopefully someone was listening.

Ginny looked up from the table that she sat at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry was late. She sighed. She should have expected him to be late, this WAS Harry Potter after all and somehow he always had a good excuse for his tardiness but still, this was their first date and in most cultures this was considered to be a good excuse to be on time. Her thoughts were interrupted though as Harry finally entered the Leaky Cauldron.

Ginny had to stifle a laugh as she took in the sight of her date for the evening. Hood drawn down on his cloak and scowl firmly fixed on his face, Harry greatly resembled Severus Snape right now. "Sorry. I got mobbed outside by some Cannon fans," he said apologetically, sitting down.

"That's fine. Can't say I don't know the feeling," Ginny shrugged. Indeed, just that morning she had had problems in Diagon Alley as she shopped in Quality Quidditch Supplies by a few of her younger fans. Of course these were nothing compared to what Harry faced. Indeed, even after months of time between his appearance on the cover of _Witch Weekly, _to his win at the national cup, he was still considered to be England's most eligible bachelor. And, since his 'official' break-up with Katie, things had only gotten worse. Harry had had to taken up the art of concealment charms and glamours for the last month or so, it had gotten so bad.

"Thanks for understanding," Harry took the hood down and sighed. "So, you ready to go?"

Ginny looked back at him quizzically, "Go where?"

"Well, you told me to surprise you about where we're going so," Harry shrugged, "I decided to take you somewhere you've never been."

"The Leaky Cauldron?" she raised her eyebrows. "Cause I hate to break it to you, but I've been here before. About a hundred before's actually."

"Yes I know Ginny," Harry rolled his eyes, taking her hand and standing, forcing her to follow him in this movement. "Which is why we're going somewhere else. I just thought that your parents knowing that we were going on this date might not be such a good idea and that meeting here would probably be better for both of us in the long run."

Ginny nodded affirmatively. He was absolutely right and both of them knew it. "So where are we going to anyway?"

Harry looked at her and smiled wryly and they started to walk towards the door. "The Cinema."

"The Muggle Cinema! I've never been there before. Are we going to see one of those…what are they called again?" She asked excitedly.

"Movies," Harry opened the door for her, "They're called movies and yes, I thought we'd see one tonight."

"Which one?" She asked, stepping out onto the street and waiting as Harry joined her.

"'Pirates of the Caribbean,'" Harry replied, smiling a bit. He had been wanting to see this one for awhile. Besides, he had heard from Hermione that it was something that Ginny would enjoy. "I thought we'd start out slowly with your first cinematic journey. It has a little bit of everything in it. If you like it, we can go to more." He inwardly kicked himself, cringing at what he had just said. _How's about you get through the first date before you start planning the second, Potter!_

"Hmm," Ginny mused. "Sounds like a plan." _So he wants to go out with me again._ She smiled as she looked at the face Harry was making. She knew him well enough to know when he had just put his foot in his mouth and knew it. Only this time, she didn't think he had put his foot in his mouth.

That didn't mean he had to know it though…

And with that, they continued their walk through the cold London streets to the Cinema, Ginny smiling secretively, having never been on the receiving end of Harry's awkward adoration, and Harry hoping against hope that he could get through the evening without melting into a pile of embarrassment at his own actions.

Ginny looked up in fascination at the movie. So far it had been quite good, better than anything she had ever seen actually. With a sigh as Harry handed her the popcorn bag-yet another thing she had never tried, popcorn was something that she knew she had to have again-she leaned over to whisper in Harry's ear, "This was a great idea."

"Yes it was," Harry smiled, opening the bag of M&M's in his hand and popping a handful into his mouth.

"But isn't it a little empty in here?" Ginny pointed out all of the seats that sat around them, vacant.

"Oh," Harry said uncomfortably. "Well, I didn't know if you would react the way Ron did when Hermione and I brought him here so I…sort of bought out the theatre tonight."

"What did Ron do?" Ginny, touched by Harry's extravagant gesture but curious about what her brother had done, continued.

Harry shifted in his seat, offering her some chocolate as he did so. Ginny took it gratefully and handed him the popcorn. "Well, we were seeing some romantic comedy," noticing the blank look on Ginny's face, he explained in more detail. "A humorous love story, I think you'd like them actually-Hermione does anyways…." He got back to his original story. "And he got so frustrated by the actions of the characters that he started yelling at them."

"He didn't," Ginny laughed, believing this of her brother. "So then what happened?"

Harry leaned back in his seat, putting some of the popcorn into his mouth. "Well, after a half hour or so of this, we got kicked out of the theatre." A grin grew on his face as he remembered, his eyes crinkling mischievously as he retold the humorous story to the woman sitting next to him. "Hermione only takes him to late shows now, near the end of the films run so that she doesn't have to do that again."

Ginny's smirk continued as she took a sip of the water Harry had bought her at the snack counter outside the theatre. Muggles, she had noticed, did things rather strangely. They sold water, which she thought was positively pointless as it was _water_ and not something like juice, or butterbeer. She had found she didn't want to take a chance on what Harry was drinking though, something an impossibly dark colour and bubbling ominously that was called _Coca-Cola_. It sounded like something that Professor Snape would have them brew in Potions Class and looked it too. "So, is it expensive to rent out an entire movie theatre?"

Harry shrugged, his smile fading a bit in worry. He knew how she tended to react when a large amount of money was spent on her. Indeed, coming from a family of little means, the Weasley's generally turned down these sorts of gestures. What with the incredible amount of money his parents had left him, and the amount that Sirius had deemed fit to leave him in his will, money would never be an issue for Harry. Add in the fact that the Dursley's had instilled an alarming frugality in him that his friends and family found odd considering the amount of money he now possessed, and spending the money on Ginny just hadn't occurred to him to be weird at all. He wanted to spend money on Ginny. She was worth it. "Sort of. But tonight's special."

She smiled gently, taking his hand into her own and effectively calming every insecure thought that had sprung up into his mind when she had mentioned how expensive or inexpensive renting the theatre had been. "It is, isn't it?" She paused, enjoying the fact that she was discomforting him so much. She leaned forward, whispering in his ear again, even though she didn't have to. "Relax Harry, I'm not going anywhere."

He turned his head, smiling again. "No, no you're not, are you?" He turned away for a moment, taking the time to set the bag of popcorn onto the floor of the theatre before coming back to her.

Ginny raised an eyebrow in question.

Harry didn't say a word, simply shrugging for the second time in as many minutes and placing a hand to her cheek.

"Why Mr. Potter," Ginny murmured wryly, putting her own hand over Harry's on her cheek, "Are you about to kiss me?"

"I was thinking about it," he grinned, leaning forward so that his lips brushed against hers gently.

"That's your problem Harry," Ginny reciprocated the gesture, taking his top lip into her mouth and sucking lightly before letting go. "You think too much…" And with that, she continued what Harry had started mere moments ago, and kissed him.


End file.
